The Rapids at Niagara

Book Description

New York & Paris: Goupil, Vibert & Co., 1848. Lithograph, printed in colours and finished by hand, by Isidore-Laurent Deroy, printed by Cattier. 7 3/8 x 11 1/8 inches. 11 11/16 x 15 1/8 inches. A finely observed view of one of the great natural wonders of the world. An excellent image from Köllner's highly important series Views of American Cities (New York and Paris, 1848-1851). This series of 54 plates was commissioned from Köllner by Goupil, Vibert and Company and was issued both coloured and uncoloured. Born in Württemburg in 1812, Köllner's first recorded work dates from his employment at the age of sixteen by the Stuttgart printer Carl Ebner to work on portfolios of etchings of horses and other animals. He came to America in 1839 and settled in Washington briefly, before moving to Philadelphia in 1840 where he lived and worked for the next 60 years. The present print is from what was probably his most important commission and certainly brought him to the attention of the art-buying public. Köllner's body of topographic work "makes a distinct contribution to the documentation of the nineteenth-century American scene" (Deak p.334). Cf. Deak 560; J. Harper Early Painters and Engravers in Canada p.183; Spendlove The Face of Early Canada p.72.

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