Minerva Terrace, Yellowstone
1872
Artist, American, born England, 1837 - 1926
Thomas Moran saw the wondrous landscape that the world would come to know as Yellowstone National Park for the first time in the summer of 1871. He had journeyed west to join F. V. Hayden's survey expedition bound for a region rumored to contain steaming geysers and boiling mud pots. Traveling by train and stagecoach, he arrived in Virginia City, Montana, where he met William Henry Jackson, a young photographer whom Hayden had hired to document the purported "Wonders of Yellowstone." Moran and Jackson quickly became a team, working side by side to select subjects for photographs and sketches. Together they gathered the first visual evidence confirming stories of an astonishing region in the Far West full of geological marvels.
Hayden, Moran, and Jackson returned east in the fall of 1871. Required to submit a report to Congress, Hayden supplemented his survey data with photographs taken by Jackson. Soon Congress began drafting legislation to protect Yellowstone. In support of the proposal, Jackson's photographs and Moran's watercolors (the only color images available) were passed among congressmen on Capitol Hill. With nearly unprecedented speed, Congress approved a bill declaring Yellowstone the nation's first national park in the spring of 1872.
Moran's watercolors of Yellowstone were so admired that within a short period of time the artist received multiple invitations to join government-sponsored expeditions to western territories. In 1873 he accompanied John Wesley Powell on a journey down the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon. That same year, William Henry Jackson photographed Colorado's "Mountain of the Holy Cross." When Moran saw the photograph, he quickly recognized a subject perfectly suited to his brush. The following year he traveled to the Rocky Mountains, where he undertook an arduous climb to complete field studies of the celebrated mountain with a cross of snow near its summit.
During the following decades Moran traveled west many times. In the field and later in his studio, he produced a number of stunning watercolors that introduced the remarkable canyons, peaks, and geysers of the Far West to the American people. Critically important as historical documents, Moran's western watercolors are also among the most beautiful paintings produced during the nineteenth century.
Artwork overview
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Medium
watercolor and gouache with graphite on wove paper
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
sheet: 28.58 × 22.86 cm (11 1/4 × 9 in.)
mount: 30.48 × 26.67 cm (12 × 10 1/2 in.) -
Accession
2012.93.2
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The artist to General Alvred Bayard Nettleton [1838-1911]; Jay Cooke [1821-1905]; James McGrath, 1968; (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York), 1968-1975; (Coe Kerr Galleries. New York); Richard Manoogian, 1978-1982; Stephen B. Klein, Philadelphia; (Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe); private collection, 1996; acquired by NGA, 2012.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1969
The American Scene: A Survey of the Life and Landscape of the 19th Century. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, October 29-November 22, 1969, no. 70, p. 56 (b/w ill.).
1972
A Century of American Illustration. The Brooklyn Museum, March 22-May 14, 1972,no. 5, p. 6 (b/w ill.).
National Parks and the American Landscape. National Collection of the Fine Arts, Washington, DC, June 23-August 27, 1972, no. 58, p. 95 (b/w ill.).
Faces and Places: Changing Images of 19th Century America. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, December 5, 1972-January 6, 1973, no. 66 (b/w ill.).
1973
A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, 1973, no. 186, p. 24 (b/w ill.), 61.
J.M.W. Turner: Works on Paper from American Collections. University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, September 30-November 23, 1973, no. 75, 208-209, (b/w ill).
1980
The Most Remarkable Scenery: Thomas Moran's Watercolors of the American West. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, May 23-July 13, 1980, Cleveland Museum of Art, August 5, 1980-October 5, 1980, Yale University Art Gallery, October 23, 1980-January 4, 1981, no. 51, p. 82 (b/w ill.), 130.
1990
Rendezvous to Roundup: The First 100 Years of Art in Wyoming. Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming, May 25-September 3, 1990.
Bibliography
1969
Art News 68. Hirschl & Adler Galleries, (illustrated advertisement), April 1969, 21, (b/w ill).
The American Scene: A Survey of the Life and Landscape of the 19th Century. Exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, October 29-November 22, 1969, 56, no. 70,( b/w ill).
1972
Ferber, Linda S. A Century of American Illustration. Exh. cat. The Brooklyn Museum, March 22-May 14, 1972, 6, no. 5, (b/w ill).
Truettner, William H. and Robin Bolton-Smith. National Parks and the American Landscape. Exh. cat.: National Collection of Fine Arts/Smithsonian Institution, June 23-August 27, 1972: 95, no. 58, b/w ill.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Faces and Places: Changing Images of 19th Century America. Exh. cat.: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York: December 5, 1972-January 6, 1973, no. 66, b/w ill.
1975
Goldyne, Joseph R. J.M.W. Turner: Works on Paper from American Collections. Exh. cat.: University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, September 30-November 23, 1975: 208-209, no. 75, b/w ill.
1980
Clark, Carol. Thomas Moran: Watercolors of the American West. Amon Carter Museum, University of Texas Press: 1980, 82, 130, no. 51, b/w ill.
1990
Boehme, Sarah. Rendezvous to Roundup: The First 100 Years of Art in Wyoming. Exh. cat., Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY, May 15-September 3, 1990.
2006
Kinsey, Joni L. Thomas Moran's West: Chromolithography, High Art, and Popular Taste. Lawrence, Kansas, 2006
Inscriptions
lower left in watercolor: T Moran (TYM monogram) 1872
Wikidata ID
Q64633263