Crossing the Falls (The Indian Bridge)
Artist:
Nicolino Calyo
(American, born Italy, 1799 - 1884)
Date: 1857
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
19 3/4 x 27 in. (50.2 x 68.6 cm)
25 3/4 x 32 3/4 in. (65.4 x 83.2 cm) (Framed)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Calvert
Object number: 78.1277
Signed: Signed and dated lower left, "N. Calyo/1857"
Label Text
Although this scene of Native Americans ingeniously using a dead tree to cross a turbulent river between two cliffs is highly detailed, it is unlikely that artist Nicolino Calyo based it on direct observation from life. This assumption is particularly probable since his mountains were the Catskills of New York—long a tourist destination easily reachable from New York by the 1850s. The Italian-born painter, who moved with his family to America after stints in Malta and Spain, tapped into popular enthusiasm for Western subjects with Eastern audiences, as this work dramatically illustrates.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2014)
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2014)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
