{"data":{"id":90048,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/90048","is_boosted":true,"title":"Distant View of Niagara Falls","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBgAFAPQAACMQBS0dEC8cETMeFTkiDSkiGDYlFz8uGzsuHTw1KT03KU0kEEU5JUQ8MUA+NVhHLXJIJFJNQ1VUTWJcUnJgTIltV4R9ZpOAYZmKbY6Bd5ONccG3msOyo8K6tQAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAGAAUAAAUYoCNNGddFidJQ1XFt2kMsEGYxwhAABlKEADs=","width":10490,"height":8127,"alt_text":"Painting of a vast autumn scene with two very small figures in Indigenous clothing standing on a cliff overlooking a massive waterfall in the distance."},"main_reference_number":"1946.396","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1830,"date_end":1830,"date_display":"1830","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Thomas Cole (American, born England, 1801\u20131848)","place_of_origin":"Niagara Falls","description":"<p>Thomas Cole visited Niagara Falls in May 1829, composing this romanticized, autumnal scene the following year. Portraying the grandeur of the American landscape, the artist omitted the factories, scenic overlooks, and hotels that populated the area in the early 19th century. Cole expressed concern about the environmental impact of voracious industrialism, but at the same time his painting erased the human devastation wrought by colonialism and conquest in the region, which encompassed Attiwonderonk, Haudenosaunee, and Wenrohronon lands. The two Native American figures at center, combined with the falls, identify the setting as North America, but their diminished presence in scale and number reinforces the false idea of the \u201cvanishing Indian\u201d and is meant to signal impending transformation rather than acknowledge their stolen sovereignty.<\/p>\n","short_description":"By the 19th century, Niagara Falls was already an iconic American landscape, nearly verging on mythical. Thomas Cole visited the landmark in May 1829 and composed this romanticized, autumnal scene the following year. In amplifying the natural grandeur of the American landscape, the artist wilfully ommitted the factories, scenic overlooks, and hotels that populated the area in the early 19th century.","dimensions":"47.9 \u00d7 60.6 cm (18 7\/8 \u00d7 23 7\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":60,"height":47,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Oil on wood panel","inscriptions":"Signed, lower right: \"Thomas Cole \/ 1830\"","credit_line":"Friends of American Art Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Julia D. Sophronia Snow, \u201cDelineators of the Adams\u2013Jackson American Views,\u201d Antiques (November 1936): 214\u201319.\n\nLouis Legrand Noble, The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (Belknap Press, 1964).\n\nHoward S. Merritt, \u201cA Wild Scene, Genesis of a Painting: Appendix I: Correspondence between Thomas Cole and Robert Gilmor, Jr.\u201d Baltimore Museum of Art Annual 2 (1967): 41\u201381.\n\nHenry H. Glassie, \u201cThomas Cole and Niagara Falls,\u201d New\u2013York Historical Quarterly 58, 2 (April 1974): 89\u2013111.\n\n\u201cReevaluation of a Thomas Cole Painting,\u201d Museum Studies 8 (1973): 96\u2013108.\n\nMatthew Baigell, Thomas Cole (Watson\u2013Guptill Publications, 1981).\n\nJ. Bard McNulty, ed., The Correspondence of Thomas Cole and Daniel Wadsworth (Connecticut Historical Society, 1983).\n\nElizabeth McKinsey, Niagara Falls: Icon of the American Sublime (Cambridge University Press, 1985).\n\nEllwood Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination (University of Delaware Press, 1988).\n\nEarl A. Powell, Thomas Cole (Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1990).\n\nAngela Miller, The Empire of the Eye (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993).\n\nThomas Cole: Drawn to Nature, exh. cat., (Albany Institute of History and Art, 1993).\n\nWilliam H. Truettner and Alan Wallach, eds., Thomas Cole: Landscape into History (National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994), ill.\n\nJudith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998).\n\nStephanie Pratt et al., \"George Catlin: American Indian Portraits,\" exh. cat. (National Portrait Gallery\/National Portrait Gallery Company, 2013).\n\nRachel Bohan, \"Jacob Kassay: No Goal,\" (The Power Station\/Dallas, 2014), (ill.).\n\nJames Rondeau, <em>Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 2017), 50 (ill.).\n\nJames Rondeau, <em>Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), 56 (ill.).","exhibition_history":"WI, Milwaukee Art Institute, <em>Nineteenth Century American Masters<\/em>, Feb. 20\u2013Mar. 28, 1948, no cat.\n\nHartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, <em>Thomas Cole 1801\u20131848: One Hundred Years Later<\/em>, Nov. 12, 1948\u2013Jan. 2, 1949, cat. 155, as <em>Niagara Falls<\/em>; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Jan. 8\u201330, 1949.\n\nArts Club of Chicago, <em>The American Landscape<\/em>, Nov. 14\u2013Dec. 29, 1973, cat. 4.\n\nWashington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, <em>Niagara: Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes, 1697\u20131901<\/em>, Sept. 21\u2013Nov. 24, 1985; Buffalo, NY, Knox Art Gallery, July 13\u2013Sept. 1, 1985; Corcoran Gallery of Art, New\u2013York Historical Society, Jan. 22\u2013Apr. 27, 1986.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/exhibitions\/2838\/window-on-the-west-chicago-and-the-art-of-the-new-frontier-1890-1940\"><em>Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier, 1890\u20131940<\/em><\/a>, June 28\u2013Oct. 13, 2003.\n\nNew York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, <em>Thomas Cole\u2019s Journey: Atlantic Crossings<\/em>, Jan. 30\u2013May 13, 2018, cat. 19; London, The National Gallery, June 11\u2013Oct. 7, 2018.","provenance_text":"Frank Sabin, London, by 1936; M. Knoedler & Co., London, 1937. Mrs. Edith Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, London, by 1946; to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1946.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":21,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":true,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":29.8417,"color":{"h":16,"l":30,"s":89,"percentage":0.016167737552204534,"population":89},"latitude":41.8788974532815,"longitude":-87.6222206476422,"latlon":"41.878897453282,-87.622220647642","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 161","gallery_id":2147477236,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of the Americas","department_id":"PC-3","artist_id":34007,"artist_title":"Thomas Cole","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[34007],"artist_titles":["Thomas Cole"],"category_ids":["PC-3"],"category_titles":["Arts of the Americas"],"term_titles":["painting","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","landscapes","organic material","painting (image making)","american arts"],"style_id":null,"style_title":null,"alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":[],"style_titles":[],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-2191"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-2191"],"classification_titles":["painting","american arts"],"subject_id":"TM-8657","alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":["TM-8657"],"subject_titles":["landscapes"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-2601"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-2601"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","organic material"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"18092196-50ae-3ff1-9205-1b3110e966c3","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["f85bee6b-d18b-5577-a9e6-f429421b4654"],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":["f85bee6b-d18b-5577-a9e6-f429421b4654"],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Distant View of Niagara Falls","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1946.396"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Distant View of Niagara Falls"],"weight":59923,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-08-10T15:17:22-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-25T23:27:19-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-01T18:58:28-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}