Horseshoe Falls from below the High Bank
Gustav Grunewald (ca. 1832)
Have you ever experienced the sublime?
In these paired paintings of Niagara Falls, Grunewald united American painting, history, landscape, and identity. The two canvases offer an early example of the use of landscape to establish national identity through the sublime, a pictorial vocabulary that emphasizes the viewer’s felt experience over strict visual accuracy. Although at first glance the paintings appear to be a single view divided across two canvases, the perspective actually subtly shifts from one canvas to the other.
\ Artist
Gustav Grunewald
German, American
Born:
1805
Died:
1878
Death place:
Gnadenburg, Germany
Gustav Grunewald was a member of the Moravian religious community of Gnadau, Germany. In 1831 he left to join the sect’s settlement at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He first traveled to Niagara Falls on a sketching trip in 1832; he would go on to paint and exhibit the subject at least 11 times. For the Moravians, nature presented evidence of God. For this reason, Niagara Falls would have held spiritual significance for Grunewald and his community.
\ About
Medium
Oil on canvas
Credit
Gift of John Davis Hatch, V, in memory of John Davis Hatch, A.I.A, architect of San Francisco