Western Landscapes

Thomas Moran captured the majestic vistas of the American West, in particular, the Yellowstone region and the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon. The artist’s sketches, water colors and works on canvas dramatically rendered the rugged mountains, gushing waterfalls, and deep valleys of the high Sierras and Yosemite. He also painted in areas that subsequently became national parks, including Rocky Mountain and Zion, and other places in the West.

His work, especially, the dramatic and monumental works, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872), Chasm of the Colorado (1873-1874) and Mountain of the Holy Cross (1875) brought the artist immediate attention and lasting fame.

In his later years, Thomas Moran travelled with his daughter Ruth, spending summers in East Hampton and occasional sketching trips to the Grand Canyon. The West dominated the last fifteen years of Moran’s life. He returned time and again to the Grand Canyon that he had first encountered with John Wesley Powell in 1873. As Charles F. Lummis rightly noted “He (Moran) has come nearer to doing the Impossible than any other meddler with paint and canvas in the Southwest.”