This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Regarded as the primary artist of the final decades of Western
exploration, Thomas Moran made eight trips West between 1871 and 1892
and created a body of oil and watercolor sketches that remain a primary
record of that period. In fact, his painting was so associated with the
West that he was referred to as T. Yellowstone Moran. In 1873, he began
signing his name with a monogram that incorporated "Y" into his
initials, and from 1911, he added a thumbprint.
He was born in
Bolton, Lancashire, England, and his father was a hand-loom weaver. In
1844, his family emigrated to Philadelphia where in 1853, he
apprenticed to a wood engraving firm and sketched designs on blocks. He
also studied with his older brother, Edward, a marine and historical
painter, whose studio he shared.
In 1860, he made his first
trip heading west, going to Lake Superior. Shortly after, he and Edward
went to England where both brothers were heavily influenced by copying
paintings of landscapist J.M.W. Turner. In 1866 and 1867, he returned
to Europe and studied the tonalist painting style of Corot and did
studies of Venice.
In 1871 at age 34, he began the subject
matter that challenged him for the remainder of his life. He traveled
West with geologist F.V. Hayden on the Hayden Survey to the Grand
Canyon and the Yellowstone River. Returning he moved his studio to
Newark, New Jersey, and began doing huge panoramic paintings from his
sketches.
In 1872, he sketched in Yosemite and other parts of
California, and in 1873, explored the Grand Canyon with Major Powell's
survey team. The United States Congress bought two paintings from these
trips for $10,000 each. From 1881 to 1911, he traveled nearly every
year, often in the West, and also painted in Florida and Europe.
In
1916, he settled in Santa Barbara, California where he died in 1926,
having spent the later part of his life painting from sketches he made
from earlier travels. His popularity never declined, and he was an
active artist well into his 80s. By the time of his death, many of his
favorite painting areas were protected in national park land.
Although
he is credited as a great documentary painter, he did not intend his
paintings to be literal records of what he saw. He was committed to
mysticism, a personal spiritual vision that caused him to find
inspiration in nature. He said: "All my tendencies are toward
idealization. A place as a place has no value in itself for the artist"
(Samuels 333). On his deathbed, at age 90, he envisioned on
his ceiling future landscapes to paint and expressed ongoing
disapproval of modernist, abstract art.
Sources include:
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art
Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Thomas Moran was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England in 1837, one of a
family of seven children. Bolton was a grimy textile center and his
parents were both handloom weavers. He came to the United States when
he was seven years old. Though he received no formal art training, he
was an apprentice to a wood engraver in Philadelphia during his teens.
From his experience, he learned the skillful manipulation of texture
and value that became so evident in his work.
Moran became a
western artist after working as an illustrator for magazines including Harper's and Scribner's. At the age of thirty-four he was invited
to accompany Ferdinand V. Hayden's 1871 Geological Survey Expedition to
the Yellowstone Territory. Moran's paintings of Yellowstone's geysers,
hot springs canyons and cliffs, combined with remarkable photographs
taken by pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson, played a major
role in convincing Congress to make the region a national park in 1872.
After
the Yellowstone trip, Moran's career as an expedition artist and
painter blossomed. He continued to travel with subsequent Hayden
surveys and painted Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon as well
as other wilderness regions for the next forty years.
In 1863,
Moran married Mary Nimmo, a Scottish immigrant, and together they went
to Europe where he studied the work of J.M.W.Turner and came under the
influence of the old masters. Later they settled in Newark, New Jersey
and had three children. Mary died in 1899 and their daughter Ruth
became his companion, accompanying him on his travels to Europe and the
West.
Later in his career Moran visited New Mexico and became
interested in painting the Indians and their surroundings. But his most
lasting fame will probably rest on his vivid and dramatic scenes of
Western America's many national parks and monuments. He continued to
paint well into an advanced age and died in Santa Barbara, California
in 1926 at the age of eighty-nine.
Written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California.
Sources include:
Smithsonian Magazine (date unknown)
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born on Jan. 12, 1837 at Bolton in Lancashire, England, Thomas Moran
immigrated to the United States with his family in 1844, and grew up in
Philadelphia where he was apprenticed to a wood engraver.
In Philadelphia he was influenced to become a painter by his older
brother, Edward, who was already an established landscape painter and
who gave him his first art lessons. He worked initially with watercolor
but soon turned to oil. After further studying with local artist James
Hamilton, he journeyed to England where he fell under the influence of
J. M. W. Turner while copying his works.
His first trip to the West was
in 1871 as a member of F. V. Hayden's expedition to Yellowstone and the
following year he worked in Yosemite. A versatile painter, Moran often
painted in the vaporous manner of Turner and sometimes in the style of
Corot.
A master of composition and pictorial effectiveness, he did
paintings that are smooth and glossy to the point of resembling a mechanical
print. Most of his work was done in his Philadelphia or Newark studios
from sketches made in the West. He later had a studio on Long Island
for many years, but due to the extreme winters, established a winter
studio in Pasadena in 1916.
In 1922 he settled in Santa Barbara where
he remained until his death on Aug. 26, 1926. Unlike Bierstadt and
Thomas Hill, Moran's work remained in demand during his entire career.
He is internationally famous for his panoramic landscapes of
Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. Mount Moran in the Tetons
and Moran Point in Yosemite are named for him.
Memberships:
National Academy of Design (1884);
American Watercolor Society; Society of American Etchers.
Exhibitions:
San Francisco Art Association, 1881;
Panama Pacific Exposition, 1915; Biltmore Salon (LA), 1926 (memorial).
Collections:
Bancroft Library
(UC Berkeley); Oakland Museum; De Young Museum; Orange Co. (CA) Museum;
MM; Museum of NM; White House (Washington, DC). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America (Groce, George C. and David H. Wallace); Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs (Bénézit, E); Artists of the American West (Samuels); Thomas Moran, Watercolors of the American West; Who's Who in America 1918; California Design 1910; American Art Review, April 2001. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
Biography from Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery Santa FeTucson:
| Thomas Moran was born in 1837 in Bolton, Lancashire to two handloom weavers. The rapid industrialization of nineteenth century England soon mechanized the weaving process and forced Thomas Moran's parents out of their jobs, at which point the whole family was moved to Kensington, Philadelphia, just outside of Philadelphia.
At the age of sixteen, Thomas Moran became an apprentice to a Philadelphia wood engraving firm, Scattergood & Telfer. It was in this position that he began to paint and draw seriously, working diligently on his skills as both a watercolorist and an illustrator. In this he had help and support from his brother Edward, who was an associate of the marine painter James Hamilton.
In the early 1860s, Thomas Moran traveled to Lake Superior, where he painted and sketched the landscape of the Great Lakes. Back in Philadelphia he sold lithographs of the Great Lakes before setting off on another trip, this time to London, to see the works of the famed British landscape and marine painter JMW Turner. Thomas Moran replications of Thomas Moran's work so impressed the director of the National Gallery that he was given a private room to work in. Upon returning to the U.S., Moran wanted to go west again and paint but had to wait for the right opportunity.
That opportunity came in the form of Ferdinand V. Hayden's 1871 Geological Survey Expedition to what is now Yellowstone National Park. Thomas Moran was hired, along with photographer William Henry Jackson, to document the landscape of the region. He could not have chosen a better trip or companion, as the combined talents of Moran and Jackson in documenting the geysers, hot springs, canyons and cliffs of the "Yellow Stone Territory" would be instrumental in persuading Congress to set the land aside as a National Park. It was also the beginning of a fruitful partnership, as Thomas Moran would accompany Jackson again on Major John Wesley Powell's expedition to the west in 1873.
It was on this trip that Thomas Moran painted his two most famous works, "The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" and "The Chasm of the Colorado," both of which were purchased (for a previously unheard-of sum of $10,000 each) by Congress to be displayed in the Capitol in Washington. With the money he was earning from his newfound fame, Thomas Moran again traveled to Europe, this time to Venice, where he purchased a gondola and shipped it back to the United States in order to use it as a model for a variety of Venice scenes he produced after 1890.
Thomas Moran moved west permanently in his old age, settling in Santa Barbara, CA and traveling to Acoma and Laguna pueblos to paint the scenery and lifestyle of the native peoples. He died in 1926 of natural causes. |
Biography from Nedra Matteucci Galleries:
| THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Thomas Moran was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England. About 1840 the Moran family immigrated to America. They settled in Philadelphia where the children received an education rich in art. At the age of sixteen, Moran became apprenticed to a wood engraving firm.
Moran and his brother Edward (a marine painter of considerable accomplishment) were introduced to the works of outstanding U.S. and European artists by James Hamilton to whom the young men took their pictures for criticism. Moran particularly admired the work of J.M.W. Turner. After studying illustrations of Turner's work, Moran resolved to see his original paintings, in color. In 1861 he traveled abroad to London to study firsthand the paintings of Turner and Claude Lorrain. To learn Turner's technical processes, he carefully copied two or three of his oils and a larger number of his watercolors. When the directors of the National Gallery saw the exquisite work he was doing, he was given a room in the gallery where he could work undisturbed.
In 1871 Moran accompanied the exploring expedition to the Yellowstone country and in 1873 went upon a similar expedition under Major John Wesley Powell, making sketches for his two great works, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and The Chasm of the Colorado, which were purchased by Congress for ten thousand dollars each and are now both hanging in the Capitol in Washington.
Though renowned for his Western landscapes, Moran did not forsake the European scene. He visited Venice in 1886 and again in 1890. He produced several paintings of the city that were shown at the National Academy of Design in the following years. The Venice canal was a favorite subject of Moran's and a recurring theme in his painting.
When he returned from his second trip to Venice, Moran brought a large gondola back to his East Hampton home. This gondola served as a model for many of his Venetian paintings. After his death in 1926, it was donated to the Mariners' Museum at Newport News, Virginia.
A painter, illustrator, and a man of great character, Thomas Moran is remembered as one of the foremost U.S. painters.
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Biography from THE COEUR D' ALENE ART AUCTION:
|  Thomas Moran, NA(1837-1926) was born in Bolton, England, and came to the United States when he was seven years old. He was one of seven children, and three of his brothers, Edward, John and Peter, also became famous artists.
Largely self-taught, Moran worked in his youth for a wood engraver in Philadelphia, then shared a studio with his brother Edward. He experimented with pencil, charcoal, ink, wash drawings, wood engraving, watercolor and oil. He went to Europe with his wife, Mary Nimmo, and studied the work of J.M.W. Turner and came under the influence of the old masters.
His first opportunity to travel in the West came when he joined a Geological Survey Expedition to the Yellowstone territory in 1871. On this trip he befriended William Henry Jackson, the pioneer photographer, and through Jackson's photographs and Moran's paintings of the Yellowstone area, Congress was influenced to declare it a national park. Many times after this expedition, Moran traveled throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah and Old Mexico painting their scenic grandeurs.
His enormous panorama, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, one of his many variations on the subject, hung in the national Capitol building for many years, as did another massive painting, The Chasm of the Colorado. Both were purchased by Congress at ten-thousand dollars each.
Later in his career Moran visited New Mexico and became interested in painting the Indians and their surroundings near Acoma and Laguna. But his most lasting fame will probably rest on his vivid and dramatic scenes of Western America's many national parks and monuments.
He continued to paint well into an advanced age, and died in Santa Barbara, California at eighty-nine. |
Biography from Thomas Nygard Gallery:
| Thomas Moran immigrated to America from England with his family as a child. Though he received no formal art training, he was an apprentice to a wood engraver in Philadelphia during his teens. From his experience, he learned the skillful manipulation of texture and value (light and dark), that became so evident in his works.
Moran became a western artist after working as an illustrator for magazines including Harper's and Scribner's. At the age of thirty-four, he was invited to accompany Ferdinand V. Hayden's 1871 Geological Survey Expedition to "the Yellow Stone Territory." Also traveling with the Hayden Expedition was pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson, with whom Moran forged a life-long friendship and collaborated on many artistic projects. Moran's paintings of Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs canyons, and cliffs, combined with Jackson's remarkable photos, played a major role in convincing Congress to make the region a national park in 1872.
After the Yellowstone trip, Moran's career as an expedition artist and painter blossomed. He continued to travel with subsequent Hayden surveys, and painted Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon as well as other wilderness regions for the next forty years.
In all his works Moran strived to recreate nature colorfully, vibrantly, and idealistically, while at the same time evoking the viewer's strong emotional response. He used many media to achieve his artistic goals and created thousands of oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and chromolithographs during his long life. |
Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe III:
| Born in Bolton, Lancaster, in England, Thomas Moran was a painter and printmaker. His brothers, Edward, John and Peter were also artists, and he himself actually studied under Edward. In the mid 1800’s, the Moran family emigrated from England, and in 1844 settled in Philadelphia, where Thomas began his career as an illustrator.
Between the ages of 16 and 19, Moran was apprenticed to the Philadelphia wood engraving firm, Scattergood & Telfer. He then began to paint more seriously in watercolor and expanded his work as an illustrator. His brother Edward, who was an associate of James Hamilton, the successful marine painter, guided, encouraged and helped Moran during this time.
In the 1860’s, Moran produced lithographs of the landscapes around the Great Lakes. While in London in 1862, the first of many return trips to the land of his birth, Moran was introduced to the work of J.M.W. Turner, which remained a vital influence on him throughout his career.
With his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, who was also an etcher and landscape painter, Moran participated in the Etching Revival, scraping fresh and romantic landscapes and reproductive etchings, such as "Conway Castle, after J.M.W. Turner" which was done in 1879.
During the 1870’s and 1880’s, Moran’s designs for wood-engraved illustrations appeared in most of the major magazines of the time, as well as gift books, which greatly added to his success and popularity.
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Biography from William A. Karges Fine Art - Beverly Hills:
| Thomas Moran was born in Lancashire, England, and, with his family, moved to the U.S. in 1844. Inspired to paint by his older brother, Moran studied privately in Philadelphia before returning to England for further study. While abroad, Moran was influenced by the hugely successful J.M.W. Turner, and Moran set about copying the master’s moody, atmospheric works.
Returning to the U.S., Moran made painting expeditions to the monuments of the American West, first to Yellowstone, then continuing to the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. The finely executed panoramas from these treks won Moran tremendous acclaim that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Escaping the harsh winters, Moran moved to Santa Barbara in 1922, where he died four years later. |
Biography from McArt Gallery:
| Thomas Moran was born on 12 February 1837 in Bolton, England, and was the son of a hand-loom weaver whose life had been irrevocably changed by the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Displaced by labor-saving machinery, Thomas Moran Sr. emigrated to America. He settled his family in Kensington, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia), in 1844.
By the time the younger Thomas completed grammar school and entered an apprenticeship with a local engraving firm, his older brother Edward had embarked upon a career as an artist. Harboring the same ambition, Thomas terminated his apprenticeship prematurely and began working with Edward in his studio. |
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