Thomas Moran | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Moran byNapoleon Sarony | |
| Born | (1837-02-12)February 12, 1837 |
| Died | August 25, 1926(1926-08-25) (aged 89) Santa Barbara,California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Landscape painting |
| Movement | Hudson River School,Rocky Mountain School |
| Spouse | Mary Nimmo Moran |
Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of theHudson River School in New York whose work often featured theRocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wifeMary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artistEdward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator atScribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.[1]
Moran along withAlbert Bierstadt,Thomas Hill, andWilliam Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Westernlandscapes made by this group.[2]
Moran was born inBolton,Lancashire, inEngland, to Mary (née Higson) and Thomas Moran Sr., one of seven children. His father belonged to a family of handloom weavers. He wanted a better future to his family, so they moved to the United States in 1844, when young Thomas was 7 years old. The trip had a life-long impression on Moran, who later created sketches and paintings of the sea. His family first settled inBaltimore, moving afterwards toKensington, a suburb ofPhiladelphia.[3]
Moran began his artistic career as a teenage apprentice to the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm Scattergood & Telfer. Moran found the engraving process "tedious"[4] and spent his free time working on his own watercolors.[5] By the mid-1850s, he was drawing the firm's illustrations for publication rather than carving them. It was then that he encountered illustrated books that included examples of the work of British artistJ. M. W. Turner, who was to be a lasting influence on Moran's work.[6] He also began studying with local painter James Hamilton. Moran traveled to England in 1862 to see Turner's work. From that point on, he emulated Turner's use of color, his choice of landscapes, and was inspired by his explorations inwatercolor, a medium for which Turner was particularly well-known.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Moran's designs for wood-engraved illustrations appeared in major magazines and gift oriented publications. Although he mastered multiple printing media including wood-engraving,etching, andlithography, which he learned from his brothers, he received renown for his paintings in oil and in watercolor. The height of his career coincided with the popularity ofchromolithography, which Moran used to make color prints of his works, so that they could be widely distributed. He was also one of the leaders of theetching revival in the United States and Great Britain.[6]
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Moran was married to Scottish bornMary Nimmo Moran (1842–1899), an etcher and landscape painter. The couple had two daughters and a son. His brothersEdward (1829–1901),John (1831–1902) andPeter (1841–1914), as well as his nephewsEdward Percy Moran (1862–1935) andJean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930) were also active as artists. His brother John was also a pioneer in artistic photography. The two often worked side by side, John photographing the same scene that Thomas was painting.[7] He died inSanta Barbara, California on August 25, 1926.
Thomas Moran's vision of the Western landscape was critical to the creation ofYellowstone National Park. In 1871,Ferdinand Vandeever Hayden, director of theUnited States Geological Survey, invited Moran, at the request of American financierJay Cooke, to join Hayden and his expedition team into the unknown Yellowstone region. Hayden was just about to embark on his arduous journey when he received a letter from Cooke presenting Moran as "an artist of Philadelphia of rare genius".[8] Funded by Cooke (the director of the Northern Pacific Railroad), andScribner's Monthly, a new illustrated magazine, Moran agreed to join the survey team of theHayden Geological Survey of 1871 in their exploration of the Yellowstone region. During forty days in the wilderness area, Moran visually documented over 30 different sites and produced a diary of the expedition's progress and daily activities. His sketches, along with photographs produced by survey memberWilliam Henry Jackson, captured the nation's attention and helped inspire Congress to establish the Yellowstone region as the first national park in 1872. Moran's paintings along with Jackson's photographs revealed the scale and splendor of the beautiful Yellowstone region where written or oral descriptions failed, persuading President Grant and the US Congress that Yellowstone was to be preserved. Moran's impact on Yellowstone was great, but Yellowstone had a significant influence on the artist, too. His first national recognition as an artist, as well as his first large financial success, resulted from his connection with Yellowstone. He even adopted a new signature: T-Y-M, Thomas "Yellowstone" Moran. Just one year after his introduction to the area, Moran captured the imagination of the American public with his first enormous painting of a far-western natural wonder,The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which the government purchased in 1872 for $10,000.[9][10] For the next two decades, he published his work in various periodicals and created hundreds of large paintings. Among these,The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) andChasm of the Colorado (1873–74) are exhibited at theDepartment of the Interior Museum.[11]
Over the next forty years Moran traveled extensively. He went back to Yellowstone with Jackson in 1892. They were invited byElwood Mead, the state engineer of Wyoming, in preparation for a "Wyoming Exhibition" at theWorld's Columbian Exposition.[10] Thousands of tourists were now able to visit the park, arriving by theNorthern Pacific Railway, and Moran and Jackson were able to take advantage of the tourist facilities, such as a hotel atMammoth Hot Springs. Moran wrote "After a day at Norris we left for the Grand Canyon where we stayed two days and made a great many photos. I saw so much to sketch that I have determined to return there myself after I have been to the Geyser Basins and the lake and spend a week at work there. It is as glorious in color as ever and I was completely carried away by its magnificence. I think I can paint a better picture of it than the old one after I have made my sketches."[10] Moran sketched many more images of the Canyon on this trip than he had in 1871, including views from the viewpoint named for him on the 1871 trip, "Moran Point".The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893–1901) is on view at theSmithsonian American Art Museum.
Moran was elected to the membership of theNational Academy of Design in 1884 and produced numerous works of art in his senior years.[12]
Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection. In the photograph depicting PresidentBarack Obama and Israeli PresidentShimon Peres in theOval Office it is seen on the wall: the portrait ofGeorge Washington is betweenCity of Washington from Beyond the Navy Yard (1833) byGeorge Cooke (on the left) andThe Three Tetons (1895) by Thomas Moran (on the right). Official White House photo byPete Souza.
TheThomas Moran House inEast Hampton, New York is aNational Historic Landmark.[13]Mount Moran in theGrand Teton National Park is named for Moran.[14] His work is held in the collection of theGilcrease Museum inTulsa, Oklahoma,Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, theAmon Carter Museum of American Art,R. W. Norton Art Gallery, and theBerkshire Museum inPittsfield, Massachusetts.[15]
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Yellowstone National Park – history and people | ||
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