Title: Thomas Moran (1837-1926), A Deer in a Mountain Landscape
Medium: watercolor and pencil on paper mounted on board
Dimensions: 10 x 14
Frame dimensions: 18 x 21 1/4 x 2 1/2
Notes:

Thomas Moran was one of the artists most responsible for introducing America to its Western frontier. Born in England, Moran immigrated to the United States with his family in 1844. At the age of 16, he began a three-year apprenticeship in a wood-engraving firm in Philadelphia, which provided his only formal training. He was painting on his own at this time, however, and participated in his first public show around 1856, exhibiting six watercolors at the Philadelphia Academy of Design.

In 1862, Moran traveled to England with brother, the marine painter Edward Moran. While Edward studied at the Royal Academy, Thomas studied and copied the J.M.W. Turner paintings at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Long familiar with and admiring of Turner’s work through engravings, Moran was even more impressed upon seeing the paintings in person. He was especially taken with their luminosity, which he tried to capture in his copies and emulated in his own work.

In 1870, Scribner’s Magazine commissioned Moran to produce etchings of the Yellowstone region based on descriptions of a surveying trip whose report the magazine published. The artist made his first trip to Yellowstone a year later, accompanying the geological survey led by Dr. Ferdinand Hayden. His sketches and watercolors from this trip appeared in Scribner’s and provided models for the artist in creating oil paintings. When the United States Congress purchased one of these paintings of the Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon to hang in the capital in 1872, Moran became one of this country’s most celebrated Western painters.

In the course of his career, Moran traveled extensively throughout the American West—the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Tetons—eventually recording the splendor of all eight of the newly established national parks. So tied to the National Park system was Moran’s work, Mount Moran in the Teton Range was named for the artist.

Moran did not produce topographically accurate images. He composed his large-scale paintings in his studio, using various elements from minutely detailed sketches he made while in the field. Rather than record a specific sight faithfully, Moran sought to capture the essence of a region. Moran celebrated the beauty and grandeur of the Western landscape to which he returned both physically and artistically throughout his life.

The artwork appears to be in very good condition with two pin dot sized dents at the center upper and lower left, an area of slight yellowing/discoloration at the upper right, and 3 small dots of foxing in the sky area above the mountains. The frame appears to be in good condition with a crack and loss at the lower left, a chip loss at the upper left and some general wear and tear.

watercolor and pencil on paper mounted on board

monogrammed lower left: TM