Details
Title Moran, Thomas
Date February 12, 1837-August 26, 1926
Description Thomas Moran, born on February 12, 1837 in Bolton, England, was a premier painter, watercolorist, etcher, and engraver, known for his landscape views, who practiced lithography in Philadelphia ca. 1859-1869. Brother to noted Philadelphia artists Edward 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 and was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1857.
Following grammar school, he apprenticed 1853-1855 at the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm, Scattergood & Telfer, before he entered the lithographic studio of his brother Edward to learn that trade. By 1859 , Moran designed and signed his own lithographs, typically art works, and in 1869, he undertook with James McGuigan an ill-fated deluxe portfolio series of his "Studies and Pictures," including views of the Wissahickon. Only a few proof lithographs were ever printed. The same year, Moran also drew a lithograph of Swarthmore College printed by McGuigan promoted in the "Philadelphia Evening Bulletin" for $1. Nonetheless, Moran abandoned his practice of lithography soon thereafter. His association with the printing process, however, did not end. His landscapes created when he served as the official artist for the Hayden Expedition of Yellowstone River (1871) were later reproduced as the noted 1876 series of chromolithographs "The Yellowstone National Park…" by Boston premier lithographer L. Prang & Co.
Although he practiced lithography, Moran's predominant association with the arts was as a painter, watercolorist, etcher, and engraver. He exhibited extensively at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts beginning in 1856, was elected to membership in the National Academy of Design in 1884, and designed wood-engraved illustrations for several books, including Joseph Pangborn's "Picturesque B & O" (1883) and Edward Strahan's "A Century After: Picturesque Glimpses of Philadelphia" (1875), as well as contributed numerous wood cuts to "Scribner's Monthly Magazine" during the 1860s. Moran also traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe for artistic studies and inspiration into the 20th century; participated in the etching revival of the 1870s and 1880s; and by the early 20th century embraced the use of his paintings for commercial endeavors, including art calendars.
During his early career in Philadelphia, Moran lived with his parents in Kensington, where his father and weaver Thomas (b. ca. 1802) first settled in 1842. In 1863, he married Scottish-born etcher and landscape painter Mary Nimmo Moran (1842-1899) and by 1864, the couple resided at 838 Race Street with the first of their three children: Paul, Mary, and Ruth. Moran and his family relocated to Newark, New Jersey in 1872 and by 1881 to New York City. In 1884, he built his studio and long-term residence at East Hampton, Long Island, New York, which he retained following a move to Santa Barbara, Ca. in 1920. Moran died a leader of Santa Barbara's art colony on August 25, 1926
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Courtesy of Library of Congress.
References See McGuigan, John and Moran, Edward.
Has format LOC-Moran.jpg
LCP-MoranThomas-photoportrait-8313-F-120b.jpg
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Anderson, Thomas Moran (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1997)
Census 1860, 1880, 1920
Groce & Wallace, 453
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Peters, 289
Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains (Norman, Ok: University of Oklahoma Press; 2nd ed rev., 1998)
WWWAA, 2324-2325
Image file LOC-Moran
LCP-MoranThomas-photoportrait-8313-F-120b