While the 1,080 sketches presented in this book provide readers with the opportunity to examine the greater part of Thomas Moran's field work, it is not meant to be an all-encompassing manual. Instead, the book presents a chronological and geographical survey of the artist's watercolor and graphite sketches made between 1856 and 1923.
The book also contains an interpretive essay by Anne Morand, art curator at the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, tracing the artist's 70-year career in the field.Moran, destined to become one of America's greatest landscape artists, was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, in 1837. He and his family arrived in America in 1844 and settled in Philadelphia, where his father worked as a weaver. He showed an early interest in art, and at the age of 15 sought employment in an engraver's shop, the common occupation of young, aspiring artists of the day.
While unable to master the engraver's craft, Moran's drawings were of such high quality they captured the attention of his employer.
Moran is best known for his work on the American West during the post-Civil War expansion, particularly in what would become Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite national parks. He also traveled in Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Wisconsin, Mexico, England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy. The book includes sketches from all these locales.
In the field, Moran used a variety of styles and techniques chosen to suit the landscape at hand. The sketches provide important insights into Moran's creative process; pure contour drawings with a bare-bones, even crystalline effect alternate in his work with sheets loaded with graphite. His compositions could be claustrophobic or cosmic, his execution hasty or meticulous: The sketches appeal to our society's contemporary taste for preliminary and unfinished works.
"Thomas Moran: The Field Sketches, 1856-1923" is so well documented and illustrated it will no doubt be used in any formal study of the artist in the future. This, however, should not stop those readers who might be casually interested in the art of sketching. While the book is scholarly it is also accessible.