Grand Canyon, 1919

Provenance

Private collection, by 1985

Private collection, Japan, by descent from above

Private collection, Japan, acquired from above

Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, New York, May 24, 2022, lot 1027, from above

Related Work

Chasm of the Colorado, oil on canvas mounted on aluminum, 84⅜ x 144¾ inches; U.S. Department of the Interior Museum, Washington, D.C.

Note: This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work by Stephen L. Good, Phyllis Braff, and Melissa Webster Speidel.

Thomas Moran first visited the Grand Canyon in 1873 alongside famed explorer John Wesley Powell. The breathtaking views of the vast chasm undoubtedly captured the artist’s attention, as he would revisit the natural site on multiple occasions throughout his life and even wrote, “Of all places on earth the great canyon of Arizona is the most inspiring in its pictorial possibilities.”[1] Moran worked with a photographer and used photos as a reference once back in his studio in New York. He quickly became one of the most famous artists of the American West and in 1874 Congress bought one of his images of the Grand Canyon, Chasm of the Colorado, for the National Capitol building.

[1] Joni L. Kinsey, The Majesty of the Grand Canyon: 150 Years in Art (San Francisco: Pomegranate Communications, 1998), 19.