2011 Annual Report - National Gallery of Art

10
COLLECTING
PAINTINGS Two exceptional paintings by
Thomas Moran, one of the most celebrated landscape
painters of the nineteenth century, entered
the collection during the fiscal year. The first,
The Juniata, Evening, was completed following a
railroad excursion Moran and his brothers took
to central Pennsylvania during the summer of
1864. Prior to his first journey to the American
West in 1871, Moran produced a remarkable
series of Pennsylvania landscapes that clearly
reflect his admiration for the work of English
artist J. M. W. Turner. As a young artist learning
his craft, Moran frequently sketched in the
forests surrounding Philadelphia, his home.
In July 1864 he ventured further, traveling to
central Pennsylvania where the Juniata, a major
tributary of the Susquehanna, flowed through
lush meadows and steep sandstone cliffs. The
Juniata, Evening is filled with closely observed
detail: grazing sheep, farm dwellings, a lone
traveler, and most remarkably, a foreground
vignette of an artist at work. With palette in
hand and color box open on the ground, the
artist (possibly Moran) is shown working
on a landscape that duplicates the scene before
the viewer.
George Frederick Tyler, a Philadelphia banker
and railroad executive, purchased The Juniata,
Evening from the artist in September 1864.
Privately owned ever since, the painting had
never been exhibited publicly until placed
on view in the American galleries at the Gallery
following its acquisition with generous funds
provided by Max and Heidi Berry and Ann and
Mark Kington.
Seven years after completing The Juniata,
Evening, Moran traveled to the far reaches of the
western frontier and found the subject that
would change the course of his career. Early in
1871 he had been hired to illustrate a magazine
article describing a wondrous region called
Yellowstone. Before reaching Yellowstone,
Moran stepped off the train in Green River,
Wyoming, and was captivated by the bands of
color that centuries of wind and water had
revealed in the cliffs towering above the dusty
railroad town. He went on to join F. V. Hayden’s
expedition to Yellowstone and complete the
watercolors that would later play a key role
in the Congressional decision to set aside
Yellowstone as America’s first national
park. Over the years, however, the subject
Moran returned to repeatedly was the western