1871 -1920 · Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and national imagination

Yellowstone, Yosemite, Tetons and Grand Canyon become under the brush of Thomas Moran spaces of vapor, depth and light whose images have contributed to American conservation culture.

Thomas Moran discovered Yellowstone in 1871 as part of the geological expedition led by Ferdinand V. Hayden. His watercolors, drawings and future monumental paintings gave the Eastern public a compelling vision of still little-known geysers, hot springs, waterfalls and canyons. Along with photographs by William Henry Jackson, these images accompany the context that led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, although the decision could not be attributed to a single artist. Moran then returned west and worked on the Grand Canyon of Colorado, the Tetons, Yosemite and other landscapes. He often assembles multiple viewpoints, amplifies the light and adapts scale to produce a coherent experience rather than a literal topographical survey. His debt to Turner appears in the golden atmospheres, mists and contrasts of depth. His paintings participate in a national imagination of the sublime territory, but they must also be placed in the history of American expansion and in the frequent erasure of the indigenous peoples who already lived in these landscapes. The selection "American National Parks by Thomas Moran" notably compares A Rainy Day, Grand Canyon and Cascade Falls, Yosemite. His reading favors the story.

Moran makes the territory credible in detail and unforgettable in light: the geological document becomes a national vision of the sublime.