St. Anthony Falls from Across the River

1854

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

St. Anthony Falls from Across the River is a 1854 by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1854 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a black-and-white picture of St. Anthony Falls, the big waterfall on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. The water crashes over jagged rocks between steep cliffs. This photo was taken around 1853, when cameras were brand new. The person who took it caught the exact shape of the falls—something paintings couldn’t do as fast. It’s one of the earliest photos of this spot, before the city grew up around it. If you like early American scenes, look up the subject america.

The story of this work

Overview

In this image of St. Anthony Falls, the unidentified daguerreotypist made an "instantaneous view" of a remarkable natural wonder, rendering its specific geological formation with exacting clarity. Above a narrow channel where the Mississippi River runs between steep bluffs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the falls churns away at the bedrock over which it descends. Named by Father Louis Hennepin during his travels in 1680, it is the only significant waterfall on the entire Mississippi River. The specific motivations of the photographer remain unknown. He or she may have wished the photograph to be…

Read the full account in the museum source.