Underneath Niagara Falls 1862

Curator: Ferdinand Richardt gives us a rather dramatic view in his 1862 painting, "Underneath Niagara Falls," rendered in oil paint. It is quite spectacular, wouldn't you say? Editor: Indeed, a wall of water. Immediately, I think of the sheer force involved here – the labor extracted from nature, diverted to power mills and fuel industrial expansion of the era. Curator: Water, of course, has immense symbolic weight. It represents cleansing, the flow of time, the unconscious. Note how Richardt positions a few diminutive figures – almost dwarfed! – to amplify the feeling of the sublime. Do they represent humankind’s relationship to the indifferent force of nature? Editor: I see it as Richardt using the human figures as units of scale, but also showing the rise in tourism to Niagara. These are well-dressed people, likely taking advantage of the newly accessible site to marvel at this natural wonder that was already becoming an exploited commodity. What about the materiality of the falls themselves, rendered with this thin application of paint. Curator: Richardt expertly creates a luminous, ethereal effect – water turned to light. The realism flirts with romanticism here, tapping into an American mythology of awe-inspiring wilderness and abundance. Perhaps it shows a yearning for something unpolluted by industrial progress? Editor: Or perhaps the sublime itself has been commodified – painted and sold. Richardt's skill at layering oil paint mimics the layered geological formations – but, ironically, those layers formed over millennia versus the short time in his studio to extract and frame. There are economic layers, here, as well, visible through the raw materials, process, and ownership of what's represented in this frame. Curator: Yes, these new ways of making resources flow across America. Richardt gives visual form to how this new era might both enchant and disorient. Editor: Indeed, a new landscape, manufactured as much as discovered. And Richardt has manufactured its consumption through paint.