Biography
Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio.
At age seven, Moran and his family emigrated from England to Philadelphia, where he was apprenticed briefly to a wood engraver. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner’s Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.
In 1862, after a trip to Lake Superior, which inspired a series of views related to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Hiawatha, he and his brother Edward traveled to England. In 1871 Moran accompanied F. V. Hayden’s geological survey of Yellowstone as a guest artist, with funding from Scribner’s and railroad financier Jay Cooke. During the expedition Moran worked closely with photographer William H. Jackson. In 1872 Moran visited Yosemite and in 1873 joined John Wesley Powell’s geological survey of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. In 1874 he was again with Hayden in Colorado, where he visited the newly discovered Mount of the Holy Cross. Although most of his life was spent in the East, he traveled west frequently, often as a guest artist of the Santa Fe Railway. 1
Thomas Moran’s painting The Three Tetons (1895) has been exhibited as part of the White House collection.
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. Moran’s images of dramatic canyons, hot springs, and geysers captured the imagination of the American public and helped bring about Yellowstone’s designation as America’s first national park.23
Nationality:
American
Dates:
February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926
Occupation:
Painter
Schools attended:
Taught at:
Student of:
Scattergood & Telfer, James Hamilton
Teacher of:
Family connections:
Edward Moran (brother), John Moran (brother), Peter Moran (brother), nephews Edward Percy Moran (nephew), Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (nephew)