Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Moran was both an artist and an artist-explorer in search of new landscapes. His sketches from nature are complimented by examples of his studio work and together create an intimate portrait of the artist and his belief in the inherent poetry of landscape.
Born in Bolton, England, Moran immagrated with his family in 1844 to the United States, where they settled in Philadelphia. Unlike many artists of his time, Thomas did not pursue an academic course of study in Europe. Instead, after a short apprenticeship with an engraving firm, he began his career in the Philadelphia studio of his elder brother, the landscape painter Edward Moran. While studying prints and books, containing reproductions of the Old Masters, Moran came to admire the English romantic painter J.M.W. Turner and, in 1862, he traveled to England to study Turner’s paintings.
In the summer of 1871 Moran received a commission from Scribner’s Magazine to enhance some poorly drawn illustrations of Yellowstone. From this he became inspired to travel to the West. He accompanied Ferdinand V. Hayden’s government-sponsored scientific expedition to the Yellowstone region. His reaction to this extraordinary place was translated into his work, which reflected Turner’s soft yet vibrant palette. Among the locations he is known to have sketched during the three weeks he spent in the Yellowstone are the Gardiner River, Liberty Cap, Tower Falls and Mammoth Hot Springs.
These Yellowstone sketches became the first color images of this beautiful region to be seen in the East. They invoked such awe and wonder that they became instrumental in persuading members of Congress to draft legislation to established Yellowstone as our first national park. Moran’s majestic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone” (1872) was the first painting purchased by Congress to hang in the nation’s Capitol.
The success of the Yellowstone sketches became a turning point in Moran’s career, elevating his reputation and leading to many commissions, including one by the wealthy English industrialist William Blackmore for a series of sixteen watercolors of the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. Moran’s fascination with the American western landscape, and his superior ability to create an enormous visual space in a small format, enabled him to attain great commercial success throughout the decade of the 1870′s.
As Western scenes became more commonplace, demand for Moran’s work declined and he decided to travel abroad in search of new vistas, first to Mexico and Cuba in 1883 and then to Italy in 1885. These locales inspired new subject matter and a volume of field sketches occupying Moran throughout the remainder of his career.