Trees on Goat Island, Niagara Falls, New York
September 1858
Classification
nature studies
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Louis P. Church
Accession Number
1917-4-1302-a
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Frederic Edwin Church, master of the Hudson River School captured the raw beauty of American wilderness in works that celebrated nature's sublime power. Painted in September 1858 during one of his visits to Niagara Falls, *Trees on Goat Island, Niagara Falls, New York* on the island's rugged trees, a sliver of land dividing the thundering American and Horseshoe Falls. As a nature study, it Church's meticulous approach to observing and documenting the landscape, honing details that would elevate his grand panoramic paintings. Church's Hudson River School style blended Romanticism with precise ...