''An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara'' is a historic

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

painted on site by Thomas Davies (–1812) in 1762. It was the first eyewitness painting and the first accurate view of the falls.

History

Thomas Davies was a British Army officer in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and received training in topographic drawing at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. During the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

, he served under General

Jeffery Amherst Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, (29 January 1717 – 3 August 1797) was a British Army officer and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the British Army. Amherst is credited as the architect of Britain's successful campaign ...

. After the attack against Montreal, he surveyed the surrounding region from 1760 to 1766 and painted six waterfalls, including this one of

. Niagara Falls was first described in the journals of Samuel de Champlain in 1604. The first published eyewitness description was by

Louis Hennepin Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, (; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollet order (French: ''Récollets'') and an explorer of the interior of North Amer ...

in ''Description of Louisiana'' (1683). His later work, ''A New Discovery of a Vast Country'' (1697), included the first image of the falls based on his description and not done on site. Davies later painted two additional views of the falls . His work was not well known until after a 1953 auction from the

Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the en ...

's library. These paintings were then shown as part of a major exhibition devoted to Davies, 2 July – 4 September 1972, at the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...

. On 1 April 2015, it was sold for £146,500 ($217,260) at Christie's in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from the Winkworth Collection. A print of the engraving of this painting by Fougeron was sold for £3,750 ($5,561). On 19 August 2015, a temporary export bar was placed on the painting in an effort to keep it in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Description

The view is of

Horseshoe Falls Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls that collectively form Niagara Falls on the Niagara River along the Canada–United States border. Approximately 90% of the Niagara River, after diversions for hydropower generation, flows ...

from the Canadian bank. The painting shows a rainbow emerging from the mist, while two

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

watch on the right. The landscape has red and orange colours as the forest leaves change from green in the fall.

Inscription

Davies inscribed scientific notes about the falls and the landscape at the bottom of the work:

Other versions

J. Fougeron produced a handcoloured engraving of this work, published in Davies's ''Six Views of North American Waterfalls'' (–68). Davies later painted ''Niagara Falls from Above'' () and ''Niagara Falls from Below'' () showing the falls from different perspectives. These two are now in the collection of the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

. File:An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara - engraving.jpg, ''An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara'' (–68) – Engraving by J. Fougeron File:Niagara Falls from Above - Thomas Davies.jpg, ''Niagara Falls from Above'' () File:Niagara Falls from Below - Thomas Davies.jpg, ''Niagara Falls from Below'' ()

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara Niagara Falls Landscape paintings 1762 paintings