Niagara Falls, Viewed from the American Side

Public Domain

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Artist Rembrandt Peale(American, 1778–1860)American, 1778–1860

CultureAmerican

Titles

Niagara Falls, Viewed from the American Side

Date1831

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsCanvas: 18 1/8 × 24 1/16 in. (46 × 61.1 cm)
Frame: 28 1/2 × 34 7/16 × 3 5/8 in. (72.4 × 87.5 × 9.2 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Lora Jean Kilroy Endowment for American Art, the Ann G. Trammell Endowment for American Art, and the Friends of American Art Fund

Object number2025.232

Not on view

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Department

American Art

Object Type

PAINTING

ProvenanceAllan Gerdau, before 1956; Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT, gifted by the above, 1956; Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, circa 1980; [Christie’s, New York, “Important American Paintings,” May 29, 1987, Lot 12]; Mr. and Mrs. Charles O. Smith, Jr., Georgia, c. 1992 – 2009; [Charlton Hall Galleries, West Columbia, SC, “Great Estates (Session II),” September 13, 2009, Lot 755]; [Godel & Co., New York]; Private collection, Florida, acquired directly from the above, until 2024; [Debra Force Fine Art, Inc., New York]; Purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2025.

Exhibition HistoryUnion College (Schenectady, NY), "Survey of American Art" (1960).

Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), "Three Centuries of Niagara Falls: Oils, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints" (May – September 1964).

Detroit Institute of Arts, "The Peale Family: Three Generations of American Artists" (January-May 1967). Traveled to the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (Utica, NY).

Lyman Allyn Museum (New London, CT), "250 Years of American Art from Three Connecticut Museums, 1700-1950" (January 12 – February 9, 1969). Traveled to the Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT), the New Britain Museum of American Art (New Britain, CT).

Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), "Niagara: Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes 1697-1901" (July 13 – September 1, 1985). Traveled to Corcoran Gallery of Art (September 21 – November 24, 1985), New York Historical Society (January 22 – April 27, 1986).

Philadelphia Museum of Art, "The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870" (November 3, 1996 - January 7, 1997). Traveled to Fine Arts Museums of San Fransico, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum (January 25 – April 6, 1997), Corcoran Gallery of Art (April 26 – July 6, 1997).
Published References "Complete List of American and European Drawings, Paintings, and Watercolors in the Collection of the Lyman Allyn Museum" (New London, Connecticut: Lyman Allyn Museum, 1960), p. 36. "Three Centuries of Niagara Falls: Oils, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints" (Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Gallery, 1964), no. 44. "The Peale Family: Three Generations of American Artists" (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts and Wayne State University Press, 1967), no. 168, p. 115, illus. John A. Mahey, “The Studio of Rembrandt Peale,” American Art Journal 1, no. 2 (Autumn 1969), p. 30. "250 Years of American Art from Three Connecticut Museums, 1700-1950" (New London, CT: Lyman Allyn Museum, 1969), no. 16 Jeremy Elwell Adamson, “Frederic Edwin Church’s ‘Niagara’: The Sublime as Transcendence” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1981), pp. 151-52 Carol Eaton Hevner, "Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts" (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Philadelphia, 1985), pp. 92, 105 Jeremy Elwell Adamson, "Niagara: Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes" 1697-1901 (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1985), pp. 46, 78. Carrie H. Scheflow, “Rembrandt Peale: A Chronology,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 110, no. 1 (January 1986), p. 162. Lillian B. Miller, "In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860," (Washington, DC: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with the University of Washington Press, 1992), pp. 211-14, 302, fig. 97, illus. Lillian B. Miller, ed., "The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870," (New York and Washington, D.C.: Abbeville Press, The Trust for Museum Exhibitions, and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1996), no. 108, pp. 83-86; 307, pl. 50, illus. Jordi Vigué, "Great Masters of American Art" (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2004), p. 78, illus. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Verso: signed "by Rembrandt Peale," inscribed "Niagara Falls viewed from the American side" prior to lining.

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Catalogue raisonnéN/A

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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