Niagara

Date: 1889
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/1909/1909.7.31_1a.jpg&max=460 width="366" height="245" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=11097"]] || Title: **Niagara**

Artist: **George Inness** Born: Newburgh, New York 1825 Died: Bridge of Allan, Scotland 1894

Material: oil on canvas Dimensions: 29 7/8 x 45 in. (76.0 x 114.3 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of William T. Evans

Accession: 1909.7.31 || Inness painted America's most celebrated natural wonder at a critical moment in its history. By the early 1880s this stupendous cataract was densely surrounded by mills and factories, obscuring and despoiling its beauty. Protective legislation in 1885 had begun to roll back the ravages of industry. A single smoke stack still appears on the horizon in this image. Inness, one of America's most devoted landscapists, ignores the thunderous pounding of water and instead, favoring a spiritual mood, evokes the timeless mystery of Niagara through veils of mist.
 * Exhibition Label: **


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * How has the imagery of Niagara changed since the other painting we looked at? Relate to the Industrial revolution.

George Inness - The 1880s and 1890s Niagara Falls Brochure
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 1.5;">Resources: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">[|//Niagara Falls//] (another painting of the falls by Inness at SAAM) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Links: **