Study of Rainbow Falls, Watkins Glen

Hope came upon Watkins Glen in the Finger Lake region of upstate New York just after the Civil War and was taken with its dramatic terrain and resemblance to the landscape of his native Scotland. The artist moved his family from Vermont to a house above Rainbow Falls, named for the colored striations on both sides of the ravine. Hope was inspired to paint many depictions of Rainbow Falls. The present work is one of the few known landscapes to have survived a flood that destroyed most of the eighty-four paintings executed by the artist.