Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Thomas Moran · Romanticism & Landscape
- Artist
- Thomas Moran (1837–1926)
- Date
- 1893–1901
- Dimensions
- 245.1 x 427.8 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., United States
This vast canvas shows the canyon of the Yellowstone River in Wyoming, with its towering walls of yellow, orange and white rock, the Lower Falls cascading in the distance and steam rising from the gorge.
A closer look
Moran first saw the canyon in 1871 as part of a government expedition led by the geologist Ferdinand Hayden. His sketches and watercolours, together with photographs by William Henry Jackson, helped convince the US Congress to create Yellowstone, the world's first national park, in 1872. In this later version, Moran combined accurate observation with dramatic light and colour, making the landscape glow as if on fire. Tiny figures on a rocky ledge in the foreground give a sense of the overwhelming scale.