Thomas Moran (American, 1837-1926). A Wood Scene, Autumn, 1865. Oil on canvas. 20 x 16 inches (50.8 ...

Description

Thomas Moran (American, 1837-1926)
A Wood Scene, Autumn, 1865
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: THOS MORAN .1865. / Op 14.

PROVENANCE:
The artist;
M.W. Baldwin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, acquired from the above, May 1865;
Albert J. Mendelssohn, Chicago, Illinois;
Dr. Curtis B. Bowman, Chicago, Illinois, acquired from the above, December 2, 1935;
By descent to the present owner.

LITERATURE:
Thomas Moran, Opus List, 1863-68, no. 14.

Regarded as one of the foremost American landscape painters of the nineteenth century, Thomas Moran is celebrated for his grand, atmospheric depictions of the American West. Yet, some of his earlier works, such as A Wood Scene, Autumn, reflect a more intimate scenery, capturing the wooded forests and familiar streams near his childhood home outside Philadelphia. These early compositions reveal glimpses into the artist's lifelong discourse between direct observation of nature and imaginative vision that would later come to define his artistic style.

Born in the industrial city of Bolton, England, in 1837 as one of seven children, Moran emigrated to the United States with his family in 1844, settling in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Here, the young artist began apprenticing at a local engraving firm where he honed his skills in draftsmanship and design. In his free hours, he immersed himself in Philadelphia's rich artistic culture, exploring the city's longstanding art tradition wherever he could. Under the guidance of his elder brother, Edward, Thomas began experimenting with watercolor and, eventually, oil painting. By 1856, the young artist was exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, marking the beginning of his professional career.

Moran's artistic development was profoundly shaped by his interest and exposure to the works of Joseph Mallord William Turner, the British Romantic painter renowned for his radiant colors and diffusive light. Determined to see Turner's works firsthand, Thomas and Edward traveled to London in 1861, and again in 1862, spending long hours in the National Gallery. Turner's atmospheric compositions and mastery of light captured Moran's imagination, serving as a lifelong touchstone.

Moran's working practice also drew from the emerging Pre-Raphaelite ethos of direct observation. He embarked on extensive sketching tours, sometimes lasting weeks, in which he captured landscapes en plein air before reworking them into finished oils in the studio. In the summer of 1864, he journeyed through the Allegheny Mountains and along the Juniata River in Pennsylvania, producing a rich body of sketches that would later inspire numerous works-including engravings for magazines, illustrations for The Pennsylvania Railroad (1875), and likely the present painting.

A master of formal academic technique paired with an infusion of his own imagination's grandeur, Moran himself insisted he "place[s] no value upon literal transcripts from nature. My general scope is not realistic; all my tendencies are toward idealization" (George William Sheldon "American Painters," New York, 1903, p.125). A Wood Scene, Autumn distills this sensibility into a symphony of light and tone. The purposeful composition aligns the tranquil waters and sliver of blue sky as mirror images, bound in harmony despite their vast separation. With a seemingly impossibly precise and delicate hand, Moran renders each blade of grass, every tuft of moss, and the scattering of fallen leaves in the foreground, imbuing the scene with a tactile intimacy that breathes life into the stillness of the forest floor. Moran captures the quiet beauty of a northeastern stream, where sunlight filters through autumnal foliage like the glow of a cathedral's stained-glass window, with the same reverence and intensity he would later bring to his majestic visions of the Grand Canyon.

Notably, Moran kept an "Opus List" of what he considered his most important works painted between August 1863 and November 1868. A Wood Scene, Autumn is number 14 on this list, and records that the painting was sold to Mr. M.W. Baldwin, presumably Matthias W. Baldwin of Baldwin Locomotives, locomotive manufacturer, art patron, and noted early abolitionist, for $150 in May of 1865.

In A Wood Scene, Autumn, Moran achieves a delicate balance between realism and reverie. Rooted in observation yet elevated by imagination, the painting stands as a lyrical meditation on the American landscape-one that anticipates the luminous vistas and sweeping horizons that would later secure his legacy as a defining voice of American Art at large.

This work will be included in Phyllis Braff's, Stephen Good's and Melissa Webster's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Thomas Moran's oil paintings.


More information about Thomas Moran. See also: Moran, Thomas Artist.

Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000.

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