Thomas Moran

(b Bolton, Lancs, 12 Feb 1837; d Santa Barbara, CA, 26 Aug 1926). American painter and printmaker of English birth. His brothers Edward (1829-1901), John ( 1831-1902) and Peter (1841-1914) were also active as artists. His family emigrated from England and in 1844 settled in Philadelphia where Moran began his career as an illustrator. He was guided by his brother Edward, an associate of the marine painter James Hamilton, whose successful career afforded an example for Moran. Between the ages of 16 and 19 Moran was apprenticed to the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm Scattergood & Telfer; he then began to paint more seriously in watercolour and expanded his work as an illustrator. In the 1860s he produced lithographs of the landscapes around the Great Lakes. While in London in 1862 (the first of many trips to England), he was introduced to the work of J. M. W. Turner, which remained a vital influence on him throughout his career. Moran owned a set of the Liber studiorum and was particularly impressed by Turner's colour and sublime conception of landscape. With his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran (1842-99), an etcher and landscape painter, he participated in the Etching Revival, scraping fresh and romantic landscapes and reproductive etchings (e.g. Conway Castle, after J. M. W. Turner, 1879). During the 1870s and 1880s his designs for wood-engraved illustrations appeared in most of the major magazines and in gift books, which brought him money and recognition.

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Thomas Moran (1837-1926), American painter and graphic artist, specialized in landscape painting. His gigantic canvases depict the grandeur and immensity of the Far West.

Born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, on Jan. 12, 1837, Thomas Moran was taken to the United States at the age of 7. He was educated in Philadelphia public schools. He early became familiar with the work of Washington Allston, Rembrandt Peale, John Neagle, and other American artists. Three of Moran's brothers were artists, and he learned to paint from his brother Edward.

In 1853 Moran was apprenticed to a wood engraver and illustrator in Philadelphia. In his spare time he did watercolor drawings, and in 1856 he painted his first oil, Among the Ruins There He Lingered.

In 1861 Moran went to London to study firsthand the paintings of Claude Lorrain and J. M. W. Turner. Moran returned to America the next year and married. He found that he was increasingly fascinated by the grandiose and vast in nature. In 1860 he had visited the Lake Superior region in northern Michigan. In 1871, serving as a guest artist with the Geological Survey of the Territories, he traveled into the Yellowstone country. The following year he toured the Yosemite Valley in California. In 1873, accompanying a party of the U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey, he explored the mountains of Utah to the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.

Moran sought to suggest the vastness and sweep of the West through huge landscapes that lacked a focal point. His paintings, more than those of any other artist, made the western wilderness familiar to people on the eastern seaboard. At the end of the 19th century few Americans had seen the Rockies, and largely because of this Moran gained great fame. His enormous Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901) and his subsequent Chasm of the Colorado were purchased by the U.S. Congress. Although his grandiose paintings were executed with considerable skill, he seems best in his smaller paintings and in his drawings.

Moran made some 1,500 illustrations, mostly woodcuts, for Scribner's Monthly Magazine and other periodicals, for school texts, travel books, and special editions of American poets. He also did many etchings, especially between 1878 and 1888. He died in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Aug. 26, 1926. Mt. Moran in the Teton Range is named after him.

Further Reading

Fritiof Melvin Fryxell, ed., Thomas Moran: Explorer in Search of Beauty (1958), is a biographical account containing excerpts from memoirs of people who knew Moran, including his daughter Ruth, his companion during the western treks, and the photographer and author William Henry Jackson. It contains some illustrations, with reproductions of etchings and oil sketches. A lengthier and more carefully documented work is Thurman Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains (1966), with an extensive bibliography.

This article is about the painter. For the author, see Thomas Moran (author).

Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran
Born	February 12, 1837(1837-02-12) Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died	August 25, 1926 (aged 89) Santa Barbara, California, United States
Nationality	American, born in England, and raised in Pennsylvania, USA
Field	Landscape painting
Movement	Hudson River School, Rocky Mountain School

Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 - August 25, 1926) from Bolton, England was a painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Thomas Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Yellowstone images 3 Legacy 4 See also 5 External links 6 Reference

Biography

Moran's family emigrated from England in 1844 and settled in Pennsylvania. He began his artistic career as a teenage apprentice to the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm Scattergood & Telfer. After two years of training, he produced illustrations and works in watercolour and began developing lithographs of landscapes around the Great Lakes in the 1860s. Moran was introduced to the work of J. M. W. Turner while studying in England in 1862, and acknowledged Turner's influence on his use of color and choice of landscapes. During the 1870s and 1880s Moran's designs for wood-engraved illustrations appeared in major magazines and gift oriented publications.

Moran was married to Scottish born Mary Nimmo Moran (1842-1899), an etcher and landscape painter. The couple had two daughters and a son. His brothers Edward (1829-1901), John (1831-1902) and Peter (1841-1914) were also active as artists. He died in Santa Barbara, California on August 26, 1926.

Yellowstone images

Thomas Moran's vision of the Western landscape was critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. Moran's pencil and watercolor field sketches and paintings captured the grandeur and documented the extraordinary terrain and natural features of the Yellowstone region. Moran's artwork was presented to members of Congress by park proponents.

At the request of American financier Jay Cooke, and at his own expense, Moran agreed to join the survey team of the Hayden 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 member William Henry Jackson, captured the nation's attention and helped inspire Congress to establish the National Park System in 1916.

Legacy

The Thomas Moran House in East Hampton, New York is a National Historic Landmark.

Mount Moran in the Grand Teton National Park is named for Moran.

Tower Creek, 1871

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, 1859

1912

See also

• Edward Moran
• History of painting
• List of Hudson River School artists
• New York Etching Club
• Western painting

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thomas Moran

• The United States National Gallery of Art page on Thomas Moran
• Gallery of Moran's Paintings
• www.thomas-moran.org Hundreds of images by Thomas Moran and more.

Reference

• Wilkins, Thurman; Hinkley, Caroline L; Goetzmann, William H. (1998). Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains. University of Oklahoma Press. LCC N6537.M6443 W55 1998. ISBN 9780806130408. 

v • d • e Hudson River School Movements: << Age of Enlightenment • Romanticism • Victorianism / Realism >> Artists: Thomas Cole • Asher Brown Durand • Frederic Edwin Church • John Frederick Kensett • Sanford Robinson Gifford • Albert Bierstadt Museums: Metropolitan Museum of Art • Wadsworth Atheneum • National Gallery of Art • New-York Historical Society • Westervelt Warner • Brooklyn Museum Locations: Catskill Mountain House • Kaaterskill Falls • North-South Lake • Olana • Thomas Cole House

v • d • e Yellowstone National Park - History and People Historic events and personalities from Yellowstone National Park Expeditions Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition • Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition  • Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 Explorers Robert Adams, Jr. • Jim Bridger • John Colter • Lt.Gustavus C. Doane • Truman C. Everts • Warren Angus Ferris  • Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden  • Nathaniel P. Langford  • Alexander Ross (fur trader)  • Osborne Russell  • Cyrus Thomas  • Henry D. Washburn Photographers, Artists and Illustrators Heinrich C. Berann  • Albert Bierstadt  • Frank Jay Haynes  • William Henry Jackson  • Thomas Moran Park Management Mission 66 • Horace M. Albright • Frazier Boutelle • Hiram M. Chittenden • Harry W. Frantz  • Dan Christie Kingman • Harlan Kredit • Herbert Maier • Philetus Norris • Robert Reamer • Harry Yount Events History of the National Park Service • History of wolves in Yellowstone  • Teton–Yellowstone tornado • 1959 Yellowstone earthquake  • Yellowstone fires of 1988 List of Yellowstone National Park related articles Media related to Historic Yellowstone Personages at Wikimedia Commons

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