Final Report, Moran's Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Final Analysis

Thomas Moran (1837 - 1926)
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901)

By: Alex Nguyen
Course: HONR 338P/ARTH 489E
Title: American Landscapes
Instructor: Professor Sally Promey

INTRODUCTION

M oran was most responsible for making people aware of their national heritage. His paintings of what is now called the Yellowstone National Park inspired many Americans, especially those traveling West to explore the new frontier. The Yellowstone, here, means all that mountainous region up in northwestern Wyoming now known as the Yellowstone National Park, among the largest and most remarkable of all our national natural beauties. It was long a remote region of myth and legend among mountain men and their kind, the subject of many fantastic conceptions that for a long time were not taken seriously.

Moran's three famous oil on canvas paintings were more than just realistic representations of the landscape - they provided spiritual and inspirational substance for those venturing to the West. They also showed vividly the awesome riches - scenic and material - of the West. So profound are his works that could be considered a national icon of the time.

He was best known for his precise put idealized paintings of nature, and his rich use of colors. Moran's styles and techniques didn't come totally from within, but was greatly influenced by a number of prominent artists at the time, including Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, James Hamilton, and James Turner.

Let's take a brief look at the earlier days of his life, see how his travel to the West lead to his magnificent Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, study the painting in detail, discuss the artists who influenced Moran's paintings the most, and take a look at the later days of his life.

BEGINNING BACKGROUND

A lthough he was born in Lancashire, England on January 12 1837, Moran spent almost all of his life in the United States since his family moved to Philadelphia when he was seven years old. His devotion to painting began in the middle of the nineteenth century, when he produced his first etchings and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Soon after this, he began to travel.

THE VENTURE WEST

M oran's travel to the West began with his trip in 1871. Prior to this time, he didn't know a true wilderness, and at this time, travelers who had ventured to the West were bringing back stories about the spectacular scenes they had seen. On this trip, Moran was the guest artist on the geologist Dr. F. V. Hayden's exploration party, the second to penetrate the area. The first party, though, could not find an artist who would be willing to submit to the hardships of such a trip, so Moran was the first artist to portray this part of the United States. He discovered that the topography of the area was something that was never seen before - it challenged the artist with a totally different range of colors. Showing much love for the area, Moran says, "the motive or incentive of my Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was the gorgeous display of color that impressed itself upon me."

The impact of this trip on Moran was expressed by his daughter, Ruth: "Every artist of genius experiences during his life a great spiritual revelation and upheaval. This revelation came to Thomas Moran as he journeyed on horseback through an almost unbelievable wilderness. To him, it was all grandeur, beauty, color and light - nothing of man at all, but nature, virgin, unspoiled and lovely. In the Yellowstone country he found fairy-like color and form that his dreams could not rival."

Color was indeed the scene's most striking feature - so brilliant and delicate that Moran said that the beautiful tints were beyond the reach of human art. He would sit at a spot now known as "Artist Point" and study the colors of the scene - memorizing every nuance, and recording color codes on his sketches. Says Moran,

"I have wandered over a good part of the territories and have seen much of the varied scenery of the Far West, but that of the Yellowstone retains its hold upon my imagination with a vividness as of yesterday... The impression then made upon me by the stupendous and remarkable manifestations of nature's forces will remain with me as long as memory lasts."

The restlessness of the period and drive towards exploration of the West led many major American artists to expatriate, and led Moran to wander also. However, Moran was not interested in the West because of the exciting life associated with that of a frontiersman, but because he wanted to depict the West in his works as a vast, romantic, ideal land of haunting beauty.

THE MAKING OF THE PAINTING

S hortly after his survey of the Yellowstone in the summer of 1871, Moran produced some spectacular watercolors of the area. So moved by the watercolors by Moran and photographs taken by Jackson, the Congress passed a bill designating Yellowstone in 1872 as the first national park. Painted from sketches made on his first trip, Moran's magnificent 86" X 141" The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was purchased by the U.S. government for $10,000 soon after completion in 1872, and established his fame as an artist. Ferdinand Hayden was Moran's first source of financial support and admired the artist's watercolors for more than their potential political value in Congress.

Following The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in 1872, Moran had a growing interest in the effect of atmosphere and light upon color which was inspired in part by artists whose styles Moran studied. He returned to Yellowstone to experiment with producing images of the Grand Canyon in fog, mist, and after the rain. About twenty years after the first Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Moran spent eight years on the same subject, this time with diffuse brushwork, softer atmosphere, and broader composition. Unlike the first one, which possessed a theme of scientific discovery, his later work represents a romantic symbol of the Edenic American wilderness. Two decades since its first discovery, the more developed nation at this time looked upon the West with nostalgia.

Moran's 1893 Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, with the absence of people and human- interaction, shows a nostalgic image of the Yellowstone before its discovery by Americans - one which will never be seen again.

THE GRAND CANYON OF THE YELLOWSTONE: A Bird's Eye View

T he huge 8' X 14' oil on canvas painting, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893- 1901) shows a view of the a canyon of Yellowstone National Park, in northwest Wyoming, with the sides of the canyon to the left and right, with a waterfall near the center, and water running down the bottom of the canyon. The scene is spectacular, and is captured in the painting with 1/5 land and 4/5 sky, and with the viewer slightly elevated over the canyon to achieve a bird's eye view of the canyon.

Organization

The painting is very complex and geometrically ordered with everything arranged with a purpose - making the painting seem "calculated." There is somewhat of a symmetry about the diagonal along which the water flows. On either sides of this diagonal, spiky, sharp, pointy forms dominate.

Initially, the immense waterfall placed in the center and the bright yellow hills at the top overpower everything else, and keep the viewer's eyes jumping back and forth between these two areas. However, Moran adds a wide variety in this painting - some of the trees are full with leaves and some are bare; some of the hilltops are sharp and pointy, while others are blunt. This variety, and the presence of the minute details, tend to make the viewer's eyes wander all over the painting. The bright orange colors on the rocks near at lower right, and the formation of a "V" or an arrow by the rocks attracts the viewer to the lower right. The details of the rocks and trees that Moran places on the left foreground invite the viewer to the lower left of the painting.

Technique

Moran applied the oil-based paint to the canvas rather thickly in many areas, creating mounds of paint in these areas. When viewed at a wide angle to the painting, there is almost a 3- dimensional feel to the surface of painting, such as that found on the rough surfaces of a globe which indicate mountains. It appears that the paint Moran uses is rather opaque, and he painted darker colors such as black, brown, and purple first, and lighter colors such as yellow and white later, and placed them in thick layers to assure that the dark underlying colors do not bleed through. Areas where thick paint was applied include the yellow peaks near the top right and the reflected light near these peaks, and along the sides of the canyon and the right side, where there are think and bright yellow paint used. In contrast, at the lower right, the colors are dark and the paint is thin. The dark areas within the trees are very thin - so thin that the interlacing texture of the canvas can be seen. Around the rocks and the sloping side that's near the bushes at the lower light, there is cracking of the paint, and an indication that Moran may have used thin layers of paint here.

Moran uses a variety of tools to accomplish this painting. He used knives to paint the rough sides of the rocks, and long, sweeping strokes with a course brush to create the sloping sides of the canyon. His meticulous attention to detail can be seen in the details of the fine leaves and light areas of the tree branches, where he uses a very thin brush.

Objects

Moran places a lightly colored bird about half the length of a pen, which is minuscule relative to the canyon in the lower right. Because of the meaning that Moran was trying to achieve, he places no humans, but just this bird, which is the only moving animal in the painting, and serves as the viewer's main object of known size to which the vast, monumental scale of the canyon can be compared. There is a wide range of size of objects in the paintings - from the large hills to the relatively tiny trees. The different-sized units are isolated from each other - with the large, irregular shaped hills are grouped together, and the small trees grouped with each other (as on the right side of the canyon) and with small hills (like at the center). The organization of the painting seems "dynamic," as thought there are hills and peaks "popping" up and down all over the and moving around.

Lines

To emphasize the contours and edges of the peaks of the hills, Moran adopts a linear approach in those areas. It is very apparent, however, that he uses a "painterly" approach with think layers and long brush strokes for the sides of the painting. The details of the rocks are achieved by layers and patches building up. Diagonal, sloping lines are found on the sides of the canyon, creating a low elevation effect near the middle. The low elevation through which the water flows is itself diagonal, with the water flowing from the top center to the lower left portion of the painting.

Near the top of the painting, horizontal lines define the top, relatively flat surface of the canyon. The lines on the top of the painting seem to indicate that the canyon is rather enclosed within the painting, with a portion of the canyon extending beyond the top portion of the left and right sides of the painting, curving around, returning back to the painting at the lower portion of the left and right sides, and establishing the top surface of the canyon in the bottom center, where the view seems to be located.

Down the left and right sides of the canyon, the lines defining the tops of the hills seem to follow a rhythmic pattern, as hills peak and crest. However, the multiple diagonal lines with different slopes that define the hills, and the vertical lines that define trees also seem to follow a jarring pattern. Clear and assertive lines define the sharp edges of the distant hills and the rocks close to the viewer and located at the bottom of the painting.

Colors/Light

One of Moran's strong points was his use of colors and light. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901) is brighter near the background of the painting, especially at bottom of the waterfall where the water splashes up, and the right side of the canyon. In these areas, warm, yellow and bright colors are used. The painting is balanced by cooler darker colors near the foreground and on the sides of the canyon closer to the foreground. Pure, highly saturated yellows and greens on the sides of the canyon help define the ground and evergreen trees. Mixed colors are more predominant at the foreground, as green and blue are mixed to indicate shadowed rocks.

The clarity and contrast of the real painting allows the viewer to precisely discern the location of the light source. The consistent arrangement of the tree shadows lying to the right, and bright yellow areas along the sides of the canyon strongly suggest that the source of light is from above and to the left.

Space/General Observations

The viewer is positioned over a cliff in the foreground. The overlapping of the fills, the diagonal lines, and the curvature of the canyon contribute to a grand, 3-dimensional space. The high horizon line also contributes to the enormity and ornateness of the painting, and allows Moran more space to concentrate on the canyon itself.

Overall, the highly organized, varied painting appears meticulously calculated and picture- like. The colors, the dark ominous cloud over the waterfall, and the absence of humans indicate a feeling of solitude and isolation. The painting displays only nature - a large canyon in it's virgin state that is "untouched" by humans.

MORAN'S STYLE

M oran's styles were similar to many prominent artists. He traveled to Europe a lot, and spent much time studying other artists of the time. His highly accurate grand paintings of nature, use of rich colors, methods which he used to arrive at the final product of his paintings, were influenced by the following artists.

Influences by F. Church

Like Frederic E. Church (1826-1900), Moran was moved emotionally by the grand aspects of nature, and tended to render the subject with a great detail and accuracy to the real thing. Church spent his life in search of the most spectacular view of nature, and probably obtained the sense of drama and expressiveness in his paintings from Thomas Cole. Church was very direct and literal in his view of nature, even far more than his teacher (Cole), so it is quite possible that the realistic qualities which Moran's works possess was inspired by Church.

Moran is often both liked and disliked for the same, reason: People like his paintings because they are accurate portrayals of natural beauty and wonder; Artists who look for art and are not well educated or are perceptive dismiss artists like Moran precisely because they do paint in a "visually rational manner."

Like Moran, Church also painted large, extravagant paintings, such as The Heart of the Andes in 1859. "[Church's] painting was both grandiose and meticulous, thus effecting a useful compromise between a desire for expansive expression and a worship of nature's process." Church's grand paintings and attention to detail is repeated in Moran's series of paintings - the two Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and The Chasm of the Colorado.

Influences by A. Bierstadt

Like Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), who changed people's image of American scenery with his fabulous paintings of the Rockies, Moran used photographs to check the accuracy of his effects of distance & description of detail. "Probably the photograph also helped him achieve a unity of view, though when Moran assembled a huge painting, such as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872), it was as if he moved through the vast space viewpoint by viewpoint, to provide the viewer a number of advantageous positions from which to judge the immensity of the inspiring phenomenon." As with his Western Landscape with Lake and Mountains in 1868, Bierstadt's works were often painted into the sun, which illuminated the scene through a succession of "atmospheric veils" and displayed the grandeur of the painting. Indeed, Moran uses photographs throughout most of his paintings, and his "experiments" with atmosphere and light was prevalent in his later paintings, such as the later Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

With his brother John, who was a famous photographer, and close friend, traveling companion, and photographer William Henry Jackson, Moran was surrounded with photography. He himself had an interest in photography, and used photographs of the landscapes as a way to measure the accuracy of his paintings. Moran painted in a studio using field sketches, watercolors, and diagrams with color notations, and photographs.

Influences by J. Hamilton

Moran also studied in Philadelphia with James Hamilton, who was the leading seascapist in Philadelphia. Hamilton was capable of utilizing eerie light, panoramic vistas, and swirling paint forms to create visionary scenes. Situated in the same city in which Moran lived for many years, Moran's mentor James Hamilton gave valuable advice and support to Thomas Moran and his brother soon after Thomas Moran finished his apprenticeship. S. G. W. Benjamin, a pioneering watercolor critic and reliable biographer, noted that "not only did he [Hamilton] aid him with wholesome advice, but out of his scanty purse he sometimes purchased some of the young artist's watercolors." Writing in the third person, Moran acknowledged Hamilton's help:

"After two years at engraving, he [Moran] left it to begin the practice of Art without a master, and had the skill to succeed. He picked up instruction from the painters of his acquaintance in Philadelphia; especially from James Hamilton, who well suited the boy's imaginative temperament."

"... he owed, more than to any other artist, the direction and character that afterward marked his works."

It is very likely that the visionary, romantic approach of Moran must have been influenced in part by Hamilton.

Influences by J. Turner

Probably the artist who most influenced Moran was the great English painter, Joseph Mallord William Turner, whose work had been known in America since the 1840's. Considered one of the leading American followers of Turner, Moran traveled to England in 1861 and 1862 to study Turner - often following Turner's path. During these years, he picked up Turner's rich colors, light, forms, and compositions, which are evident in Moran's later paintings, especially the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901). Moran gained new insights into his idol's effects; he grasped underlying the truths that at first were obscured by the artist's peculiar "impressionism," and felt a new appreciation for Turner's subjective use of nature.

To learn Turner's technical processes, Moran carefully copied two or three of his oil paintings, and a larger number of his water color paintings. Moran duplicated Turner's paintings with such precision that his work was often mistaken for Turner's. Moran studied Turner's water colors and caught the qualities of his idol's style so well that one of his own studies, a view of Arundel Castle, was mistaken in London for a sketch by Turner. In another instance, Moran, at this time a reputable authority on Turner, was asked to authenticate a small landscape painting which art collector Thomas Nast had framed with Turner's name inscribed on it. Nast had purchased the painting from a reputable dealer, and connoisseurs had called the painting genuine. But when looking at the painting, Moran felt a "tantalizing sense of familiarity." After checking the back of the painting for markings, he discovered that he himself created the painting in 1858, which he took to London three years later. Moran was quick to admit that Turner's styles had greatly influenced him, and that this influence could be readily observed in his work, especially in his use of vivid, bright colors. This incident underscored the notion that Moran could be called "the American Turner."

After Moran's death, a critic wrote, "In studying Turner he grasped the essential of his interpretation of the outdoor world, and the beautiful luminous passages in his work flow with limpid directions from their source in Turner's sunlight." This is certainly evident in the extensive "experiments" of sunlight, atmosphere, and enhanced colors of the great outdoors of the Yellowstone National Park in The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901).

Moran, however, did not acknowledge as much of Turner's contribution to his styles as critics did - he thought that Turner just served to reveal nature to him. He felt that Turner "would falsify the color of any object in his picture in order to produce what he considered to be a harmonious hole." Although Moran did handle his colors similar to the way that Turner did in his paintings, Moran claimed that he never did so much as to overwhelm its individual character.

About Turner, Moran commented, "Turner is a great artist, but he is not understood, because both painters and the public look upon his pictures as transcriptions of Nature... All that he asked of a scene was simply how good a medium it was for making a picture; he cared nothing for the scene itself. Literally speaking his landscapes are false." Although Moran's paintings were usually based upon actual scenes, he tends to idealize the landscape rather than portray them as they are in reality, and he felt that topography in art was valueless. Moran says,

"I place no value upon literal transcripts from nature. My general scope is not realistic; all my tendencies are toward idealization. Of course, all art must come through nature or naturalism, but I believe that a place, as a place, has no value in itself for the artist only so far as it furnishes the material from which to construct a picture."

"Topography in art is valueless... while I desired to tell truly of Nature, I did not wish to realize the scene [The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone] literally, but to preserve and to convey its true impression."

Moran was rather fond of Turner. Around 1870 to 1890, Moran, after having copied some of Turner's paintings, made a series of humorous paintings hung on the walls of the parlor of the Salmagundi Club in New York City for a special reception given in 1890 for a member of the club. One of the pieces was an imitation of Turner, done in oil on a round panel, and bore the inscription, "Bought by an American millionaire from a needy English Duke for $291,000.75. Painted by Jim Jam M. W. Turner."

ENDING BACKGROUND

M oran's wife died in 1899; his son, Paul Nimmo Moran, a genre painter, died in 1907. His two daughters, Mary Moran Tassin and Ruth Bedford Moran, survived him, the former until 1955, the latter until 1948. He himself lived to become the senior member of the National Academy of Design and revered as the Dean of American Artists, dying in Santa Barbara, California, on August 25, 1926, at the age of 89.

SUMMARY

T homas Moran (1837-1926) was a magnificent landscape painter known for his Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901) and The Chasm of the Colorado (1872). Influenced the most by J. M. W. Turner, Moran is best remembered for his idealized views of the American West. His works, which had particular attention to the details of nature, use of colors, light, and atmospheric effects, greatly affected the nation during his time, and still today.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

__________. "Portrait of Thomas Moran." [http://www.nmaa.si.edu/cgi- bin/fullpage.pl?adir=artist_m&name=Portrait+of+Thomas+Moran&title=from+the+P eter+A.+Juley+and+Son+Collection&year=&prefix=jamort1]

(Can be reached by connecting to the "National Museum of American Art Home Page": [http://www.nmaa.si.edu] and selecting "...portraits of some of your favorite American artists...")
__________. "National Museum of American Art Home Page." [http://www.nmaa.si.edu]. Sept. 11, 1995

__________. "NMAA MESL project." [http://www.nmaa.si.edu/deptdir/pubsub/mesl.html]

__________. "Thomas Moran Landscapes." National Museum of American Arts. 1995. (Handout.)

Clark, Carol, Thomas Moran's watercolors of the American West. Austin and London : University of Texas Press, 1981.

Fern, Thomas S. The Drawings and Watercolors of Thomas Moran. Notre Dame: Art Gallery, University of Notre Dame, c1976.

Fryxell, Fritiof. "Thomas Moran, Explorer in Search of Beauty." in Thomas Moran, Explorer in Search of Beauty. East Hampton, Long Island, New York: East Hampton Free Library, 1958.

Gerdts, William H. Thomas Moran, 1837-1926. Riverside: University of California, c1963.

Taylor, Joshua C. The Fine Arts in America. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Wilkins, Thurman, Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.

Fryxell, Fritiof. "Thomas Moran, Explorer in Search of Beauty." in Thomas Moran, Explorer in Search of Beauty. (East Hampton, Long Island, New York: East Hampton Free Library, 1958), p. 50. Gerdts, William H. Thomas Moran, 1837-1926 (Riverside: University of California, c1963), p. 19. Fryxell, p. 9. Wilkins, Thurman, Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), p. 65. Taylor, Joshua C. The Fine Arts in America (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Presss, 1979), p. 99. Ibid, p.98. Ibid, p.99. Clark, Carol, Thomas Moran's watercolors of the American West (Auston and London : University of Texas Press, 1981), p. 8. Ibid. Wilkins, p. 24. Ibid., p. 37. Fryxell, p. 7. Wilkins, p. 38. Ibid., p. 39. Ibid., p. 40. Quote from Moran, from Wilkins, p. 37. Clark, p. 9. Gredts, p. 16. Clark, p. 30. Fryxell, pp. 7-8. Ibid., p. 15. Thomas Moran, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Final Analysis 2 16