MAG Collection - View of Venice

View of Venice

1890
19 3/4 x 24 1/2 in. (50.2 x 62.2 cm)

Thomas Moran
United States (Bolton, Lancashire, England, 1837 - 1926, Santa Barbara, CA)

Object Type: Painting

Medium and Support: Oil on canvas

Credit Line: Given in loving memory of Cornelia Robinson and Henry Douglas Buell by their daughter Jane Buell Ward and family

Accession Number: 2000.6

Link to this object

Location: Not currently on view

Thomas Moran was an adventurous landscape painter who traveled far and wide in search of compelling views. He accompanied the first government-sponsored expedition to Yellowstone, shortly before it became a national park, and his drawings and watercolors from that expedition formed the basis for dramatic paintings of western views. In 1886, he journeyed to Venice, where his watercolors captured views of lagoons and picturesque buildings. These sketches formed the basis of immensely popular studio paintings like the one hanging here.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Venice was a favored Old World destination for many American writers and painters, including Mark Twain, Henry James, and James MacNeill Whistler. However, Moran's work probably had the greatest impact on Americans' awareness of La Serenissima (the most serene), a fond nickname for Venice.

[Gallery label text, 2004]

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Daniel Cottier (1838-1891, dealer) New York; presumably purchased from him by Vose Galleries, Boston; purchased from them by James Sibley Watson (1860-1951), Rochester, NY, 1936; gift of his estate to the Gallery in 1951

Keywords Click a term to view the records with the same keyword

19th century

seascapes

1800-1900

paintings

boats

Venice, Italy

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