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.

Distant View of Niagara Falls

Thomas Cole

1830

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

“vanishing

Indian”

and

is

meant

to

signal

impending

transformation

rather

than

acknowledge

their

stolen

sovereignty.

Title	Distant View of Niagara Falls
Artist	Thomas Cole
Date	1830
Medium	Oil on wood panel
Dimensions	47.9 × 60.6 cm (18 7/8 × 23 7/8 in.)