Multnomah Falls
Created circa 1890, Multnomah Falls is a testament to William Samuel Parrott’s dexterity with a paintbrush and detailed artistry. Parrott normally painted on a large scale, so the compactness of Multnomah Falls is a rare occurrence in his oeuvre. Rising just above a foot and only half a foot across, the painting is a lower-angle shot looking up at the falls and the iconic bridge. Though no time of year is specified in the title of the painting, it could be assumed that the painting was made in Autumn. Parrott was known for returning to a place at different times of day and times of the year, such as his Mount Hood series; thus, it would not be out of character for him to go to and paint Multnomah Falls in a particular temporality.
Despite the small canvas, the painting is highly detailed, with every leaf, nook, water droplet, and wisp of cloud meticulously drawn with barely perceptible brush strokes. Perhaps made towards the end of the day, as the sky above the falls fades to a deeper light blue with a hint of orange and pink at the bottom, we see nature shedding its layers, ready to form new ones. The top of the falls shows bare trees falling, and in the middle ground of the painting near the bridge, the trees on the right look less green with another hunt of orange. But in the foreground, right before the pool, at the bottom of the falls, we see a barren tree with a wisp of orange foliage and a pile of orange and tan leaves and nature that suggest an autumnal time of year.
Though the painting is small, the impact is enormous. One thing that stands out in the painting is the bridge, but not because it dominates the canvas, in fact, it is very much the opposite. The bridge stands out because of how minuscule and flimsy it looks against the backdrop of the powerful torrent of water coming from the waterfall. It invokes Romanticism and the sublimity of nature.
The sublime is a philosophical notion theorized by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German Enlightenment philosopher that spoke of the Sublime as a concept that is specific to every person. The Sublime is the way nature overwhelms us. Humans are small in comparison to it but are connected to it by living surrounded by nature. It is inescapable and dominant, inspiring awe and terror because of its power. This is what Multnomah Falls invokes as it depicts a small man-made bridge that pales in comparison to the enormous waterfall behind it, capable of overwhelming the bridge at any time. And yet, it is also beautiful and calming, a scene of tranquility and anxiety as the passing of time and the rejuvenation of nature begins its cycle. Life and death, terror and beauty- this is what the settlers saw of the Pacific Northwest during Westward expansion and the American colonization of the west before they sought to dominate the land.