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©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Henry Lewis

Falls of Saint Anthony, Upper Mississippi

1847
Oil on canvas.
68.6 x 82.5 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
646
(
1981.52
)
ROOM 31
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
Henry Lewis was one of the first explorers who began to travel the upper Mississippi River in the mid-nineteenth century to admire the exuberance of its cataracts. In summer 1847 this painter of English origin established in Saint Louis paid his first trip along this fast-flowing river in a steamboat from Fort Snelling and the Falls of Saint Anthony to New Orleans, making abundant sketches. The following winter he completed a large number of views of the river at his Saint Louis studio, among them the Falls of Saint Anthony, Upper Mississippi in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.

Although many other artists also painted panoramic views of the mythical river, Lewis was the first to produce a monumental panorama, Mammoth Panorama of the Mississippi River, executed in Cincinnati in 1849, which was shown in several American and European cities with the aid of a special device that slowly unrolled it while a presenter gave a description. In 1854, while in Düsseldorf, Lewis published Das Illustrierte Mississippithal, an account of his trip accompanied by his own sketches which is now among the most treasured publications on the exploration of America.

It is also interesting to note that Lewis based the Falls of Saint Anthony on a number of meticulous, realistic sketches acquired from Seth Eastman, a soldier-painter of the Dakota and Chippewa Indians and of the scenery of the Mississippi. The somewhat naïve minute detail of the topography of the spot also recalls the painting of his contemporary George Catlin. This painstaking attention to detail can be seen in the figure of the Indian sitting in front of the rapids, whose painted face and feathered and jewelled adornments can be distinguished, despite his minute size.

Paloma Alarcó
19th Centurys. XIX - Pintura norteamericana. CostumbrismoPaintingOilcanvas
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Falls of Saint Anthony, Upper Mississippi. Las cataratas de San Antonio, Alto Mississippi, 1847
Falls of Saint Anthony, Upper Mississippi
Henry Lewis

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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Falls of Saint Anthony, Upper Mississippi. Las cataratas de San Antonio, Alto Mississippi, 1847
Falls of Saint Anthony, Upper Mississippi
Henry Lewis

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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