The Niagara River at the Cataract

Gustav Grunewald

German, American

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.

Born

1805

Died

1878

The Niagara River at the Cataract by Gustav Grunewald

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.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Credit

Gift of John D. Hatch, V, in memory of John Davis Hatch, A.I.A, architect of San Francisco

Item ID

1996.52.1

Dimensions

84 x 60 in. (213.4 x 152.4 cm)

Date

ca. 1832

Country

Artist name

Gustav Grunewald

Artwork location