View of the Cataract of Niagara with the Country adjacent (From a Drawing taken on the Spot by Lt. Pierie of the Rl. Artillery. 1768.), by William Byrne

‘In 1768, Lieutenant William Pierie, a brother officer of Davies stationed at Ford Niagara, sketched the cataracts from a commanding position atop the 100-foot-high upper bank on the Canadian side. From this elevation, overlooking the Horseshoe Fall, the various features of the expansive landscape could be seen to greater advantage than from the edge of the gorge downstream. At some point in the early 1770s, Pierie’s on-the-spot drawing found its way into the London studio of Richard Wilson (1714-1782), one of Britain’s leading landscape painters. He utilized the soldier-artist’s sketch to create The Falls of Niagara, a large work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1774. It was the first oil painting executed by a professional artist and the earliest to be exhibited publicly. … Although its impact never rivalled that of the 1697 engraving, Wilson’s composition was disseminated through an engraving.’ J.E. Adamson, Niagara Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes, 1697-1901 (Corcoran Gallery of Art exhibition catalogue), Washington, DC, 1985, pp.22-23.