THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Painted by Moran in 1882 and brought to England for a selling exhibition in Bolton, England which was his home town. This watercolour was one of over 100 watercolours and 22 oils shown in Bolton, all were sold within the day of going on sale. The work has been researched by a number of leading authorities on the artist.

Thomas Moran's selling exhibition - Bolton, England 1882

Thomas Moran began his artistic career as a teenage apprentice to the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm Scattergood & Telfer. After two years of training, he produced illustrations and works in watercolour and began developing lithographs of landscapes around the Great Lakes in the 1860s. Moran was introduced to the work of J. M. W. Turner while studying in England in 1862, and acknowledged Turner's influence on his use of color and choice of landscapes. During the 1870s and 1880s Moran's designs for wood-engraved illustrations appeared in major magazines and gift oriented publications.

Moran was married to Scottish born Mary Nimmo Moran (1842–1899), an etcher and landscape painter. The couple had two daughters and a son. His brothers Edward (1829–1901), John (1831–1902) and Peter (1841–1914), as well as his nephew Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930) were also active as artists. He died in Santa Barbara, California on August 26, 1926.