A View of the Western Branch of the Falls of Niagara, Taken from Table Rock

Details

Descriptive Terms

landscapes (representations)
paintings (visual works)
canvas
oil paint (paint)
Picture
Landscape
Landscape

Label

John Vanderlyn was the first American artist known to have painted Niagara Falls. He completed two paintings in 1801 which he took to London two years later to be engraved, hoping for a commercial success to relieve his financial difficulties. The subsequent whereabouts of one of those paintings has long been unknown. Recent scholarship suggests that this View may be the lost Vanderlyn. It is now on display at the Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
This painting presents an art historical puzzle. The scene is one that was painted by John Vanderlyn in 1801 and subsequently lost. Stylistically, this painting has all the makings of Vanderlyn's work, but the stretcher has the label of a Philadelphia art supplier known to have made copies. How the copyist got access to the original painting is unknown. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the painting belonged to James Bowdoin Bradlee and his wife, Mary. It hung in the parlor of their Beacon Street home in Boston, Massachusetts, for much of the remainder of the century.
"Artful Stories": For early nineteenth-century New Englanders, the Falls of Niagara were a perfect symbol of the new nation. Powerful and beautiful at once, they were evidence of the awesome majesty and potential of the country. In 1801, John Vanderlyn became the first academically trained American artist to paint Niagara. He commissioned engravings to be made from his paintings and these found their way into countless American homes including Historic New England’s Quincy House, in Quincy, Massachusetts. During the ensuing years, Vanderlyn painted a number of copies of his original version. This is thought to be one of the later ones.

Associated Person

Bradlee, James Bowdoin, 1813-1872
Codman, Thomas Newbold, 1868-1963

Associated Building

Original to Codman House (Lincoln, Mass.),

Associated Events

Elegant Embellishments (1982)

Maker

Attributed to Vanderlyn, John, 1775-1852 (Artist)
Possibly Scarlet, Samuel, 1775 (Painter)

Dimensions

34 x 42 x 3 (HxWxD) (inches)

Credit Line

Bequest of Dorothy S.F.M. Codman

Accession Number

1969.778

Places

Probably New York state (United States)
Probably New York state (United States)
Probably