Details
Title Moran, Edward
Date August 19, 1829-June 9, 1901
Description Edward Moran, the eminent maritime painter born August 19, 1829 in Bolton, England, was active as a lithographer in Philadelphia in the mid 1850s. Brother to noted Philadelphia artists Thomas and Peter (1841-1914) and photographer John Moran (1831-1902), Moran immigrated to Philadelphia with his siblings and mother Mary (b. ca. 1806) in 1843. Originally trained as a loom worker, Moran entered the field of arts in the early 1850s under the mentorship of local artists Paul Weber and James Hamilton.
During this time he also began in the lithographic trade, possibly with Herline & Co., and exhibited paintings at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Known lithographs by Moran are few and include "Washington and His Staff at Valley Forge" printed by Herline & Co. in 1855; an undated sheet of six small landscape and seascape studies in the John Sartain print collection at the Moore College of Art, Philadelphia; and an album "Land and Sea" (ca. 1871) containing eighteen lithographs with three to six land and sea studies vignettes. He may also have delineated lithographic plates for Elisha K. Kane's "U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin" (1854).
Moran's association with lithography was short-lived, and after 1855 he focused on his marinescape paintings, studied at the Royal Academy in London in 1861, and exhibited his works at PAFA, the National Academy of Design, the Artists Fund Society, and the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. In 1871, Moran relocated to New York City where his reputation as an expert artist in the creation of seascapes was cemented. Despite a long absence from lithography, Moran joined the newly established American Society for Painters on Stone in 1890. He died on June 9, 1901 in New York City.
Moran was married to Elizabeth (b. ca. 1830) with whom he had one son, James (b. ca. 1849), by 1850. During his short career in lithography in 1855, Moran lived at 308 Callowhill Street. Before relocating to New York and marrying his second wife Annette (b. 1840), Moran lived with his mother and three sons, including artist Edward Percy (1862-1935) and John Leon (1864-1941) in North Philadelphia (Ward 14) in 1870.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Portrait from the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
References See Herline, Edward.
Has format LCP-MoranEdward-photoportrait-P-8449.jpg
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Anderson, Thomas Moran
Census 1850, 1860, 1870, 1900
Groce & Wallace, 453
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Peters, 289
Schweizer, Edward Moran (1829-1901): American Marine and Landscape Painter (1979)
Image file LCP-MoranEdward-photoportrait-P-8449