A celebrated American landscape painter, Thomas Moran was born in Bolton, England in 1837. Moran immigrated with his family to the United States in 1844, settling in Kensington, Philadelphia. His early exposure to art came through an apprenticeship with a wood-engraving firm, but he soon transitioned to painting, working in the studio of his brother Edward Moran, a marine artist.
There he developed an enduring interest in the English painter J.M.W. Turner and met James Hamilton, a landscape painter who was dubbed as an ‘American Turner’. Moran travelled to England with his brother in 1861 to study Turner’s work in person at the National Gallery in London, and he was indelibly influenced by the British artist’s depiction of light and use of watercolour.
As a prominent figure in the Hudson River School, a loosely associated group of Romantic American landscape artists which included Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran's paintings are characterised by their romantic and detailed depictions of the American landscape, capturing the sublime beauty of its vast and untamed wilderness.
Moran’s artistic journey took a pivotal turn in 1871 when he joined Ferdinand Hayden’s geological expedition to Yellowstone in Wyoming. The watercolours that resulted from this trip were instrumental in popularising Yellowstone and its establishment as the first National Park.
Another significant subject for Moran was the Grand Canyon. Moran’s illustrations of the dramatic landscape for the popular magazine Scribner’s Monthly are credited with helping to raise public appreciation of the region’s beauty. Gaining in popularity, his monumental canvas of the Grand Canyon was completed the following year, and was soon purchased by the government for US$10,000 to hang in the Capitol.
Moran continued to travel and paint in the decades that followed, capturing more of the American West, including the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, as well as the canyon lands of Arizona and New Mexico. Christie’s New York sold his painting of Green River of Wyoming (1878) in 2008 for US$17,737,000, establishing a world auction record for the artist. When he died in Santa Barbara, California, in 1926, he was remembered as the ‘Dean of American Landscape Painters’.
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Green River of Wyoming
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
The Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
The Castle Rock, Green River, Wyoming (Indian Summer. Green River. Wyoming)
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
A Passing Shower in the Yellowstone Cañon
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Canyon of the Virgin River
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Grand Canyon, Colorado River
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Afterglow, Green River, Wyoming
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Zion Valley, South Utah
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming Territory
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
A Passing Shower in the Yellowstone Cañon
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Index Peak, Yellowstone, Wyoming
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Grand Cañon after a Storm (Grand Canyon of Arizona at Sunrise)
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Moonlit Shipwreck at Sea
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
A Street in Laguna, New Mexico
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
In the Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Survey Party in the Valley of the Yellowstone
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Castle Butte, Green River, Wyoming
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
A Side Canyon, Grand Canyon, Arizona
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Glorious Venice
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
The Entrance to the Grand Canal
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Morning in the Sierras, Nevada
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Green River
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Castle Geyser, Yellowstone
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
A Side Canyon, Grand Canyon of Arizona
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
The Lagoon, Venice
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Sunrise Landscape
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Land of Dreams
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
The Transept
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Vera Cruz Harbor, Mexico
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Sunset
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Venice, Sunset behind Santa Maria
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Santa Barbara Mission
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Grand Canal, Venice
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Coastal Scene
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Vera Cruz Harbor, Mexico
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Venice, Sunset behind Santa Maria
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
A Cloudy Day on Long Island
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Arabian Nights Fantasy
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Ulysses and the Sirens
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Grand Canal, Venice
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Sunny Hillside, East Hampton
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Bay of Baiae, Sunrise
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
Passing Shower
THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
The Grand Canal, Venice
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Ducal Palace, Sunset
Thomas Moran (1827-1926)
The Palace of Cortez, Cuernavaca, Mexico