Art Tourist: Stepping Into a Thomas Moran Painting

“Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone” Thomas Moran. 1872.

I just got back from a family vacation, our first since Covid began, to Yellowstone National Park. As you can imagine, the views were spectacular especially to an East Coaster like me who was seeing the Rocky Mountains and surrounding areas for the first time. Many of the stops in the park had artistically inspired names such as the geyser area trails known as “Fountain Paint Pots” and “Artist’s Paint Pots”. I was not particularly enthused to see yet another similar sounding named sight along the Southern Trail called “Artisit’s Point”. So when my husband turned to me and asked, “Should we go see it?”. I answered “Sure”, in a rather dismissive voice—not expecting much. But boy was I wrong!

What awaited us was nothing less that the jaw dropping view of Yellowstone made famous by Thomas Moran himself, famed Hudson River School landscape painter and as such is considered to be associated with the “Transcendentalist” art movement of the 1830s & 1840s. He is credited with the American embrace of the West and inspiring many to embark upon their own journeys of Westward Expansion.

As soon as I encountered the view I was gob smacked. I had such an intense feeling of Deja-Vu that I knew I had seen this view before. Then it dawned on me, I had— in the art of Thomas Moran!

It is not an exaggeration to say that Thomas Moran’s work is responsible for the creation of the Yellowstone National Park itself. As Chief Illustrator for the popular magazine Scribner’s, Moran was invited in 1871 by Dr. Ferdinand Hayden, director of the United States Geological Survey to join the survey team of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 as they explored the Yellowstone region. Moran produced over 30 images of locations on that trip and it is these paintings and sketches along with the photographs of William Henry Jackson that persuaded President Grant and the US Congress to make Yellowstone our first national park in 1872. My visit coincided with its 150th anniversary.

Moran was so closely associated with his paintings of Yellowstone (and Teton National Park) that he eventually began signing his work simply with the initials T.Y.M. - for Thomas “Yellowstone” Moran.

Some argue that the actual view used by Thomas Moran to paint his famous painting is located on the North Rim Overlook currently called “Look Out Point” as this is the place from which he made his sketches during the Hayden Geological Survey. However, Yellowstone Park Photographer, F. J. Hayes, attributed this location on the official map to Moran’s painting and so it continues to be linked to it. I personally think it is possible that he made the painting based on several different views including the North Rim Overlook and Artist’s Point views as is common practice among artists seeking the best composition in a painting.

Moran’s painting “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” (seen above) was purchased by the US Government for $10,000 and can be seen on long-term loan from the U. S. Department of the Interior at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC. And now we have come full circle because it was indeed at this museum where I first saw this view—within Moran’s painting—for the very first time.

My husband and I doing the touristy thing in front of “Artists Point” Yellowstone NP (also known as “Moran’s View”).