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Niagara Falls by Thomas Chambers
19th century American
The Wadsworth Atheneum

In the catalogue it looked less primitive:
A man in moleskins stood on a rock
A forking branch emerged from the water
And the falls fell like a white horse tail

But now it’s arrived in its cylinder
I see there are mistakes made in perspective
And it’s one of those paintings which
The purchaser purchases to forgive the artist

And provide a comment. ‘I was there in ’86
And thought this amusingly captured it
The man in moleskins was nowhere in sight
But helicopters circled looking for barrels:

A repeated student practice. We rode
The Maid of the Mist into the mist
And here, modestly, like the artist I faltered
And thought it was rain wetting my face

Or some cloudburst above roaring’
So now I better understand the painting
The man with no footfall in sight
And the water pouring and pouring.