.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The art of Thomas Moran has defined our perception of the Western American landscape perhaps more than the work of any other painter. Moran's expansive views of The Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, in particular, have captured the American imagination. At the turn of the century, Moran executed a series of works inspired by heroic scenes from the literary classic The Odyssey by Homer. Ulysses and the Sirens from 1900, part of this series, reveals the artist's ambitious talent for creating a powerful landscape of mythic proportions.
Since early in his career in Philadelphia, Moran was inspired by the landscape untouched by man and sought inspiration from not only his immediate surroundings, but from literary sources. Thurman Wilkins writes: "At the onset his love of nature was for the pristine state, landscape unspoiled by encroachments from civilizations. There was little charm for him in the commonplaces of human life. He preferred the natural scene before it was reduced or marred by the hand of man. But the young artist could not afford to go beyond a radius of one hundred miles to two from Philadelphia. Hence, between painting scenes on the Schuylkill or the Wissahickon, the Delaware, Susquehanna, or Raritan Bay, he moved in imagination to places that were wilder, more distant, more exotic. He was stirred, for instance, by his reading in Shelley." (Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 26) In 1856, Moran finished Among the Ruins He Lingered, a painting based on the poem entitled Alastor about a melancholy quest of a poet. The work was considered the artist's first significant canvas. As one critic later observed: "The subject was highly characteristic of his mental cast, for imagination is perhaps his master quality." (S.G.W. Benjamin, "A Pioneer of the Palate, Thomas Moran," Magazine of Art, Vol. V, February 1882, p. 90) Moran throughout his career would take imaginative journeys to the fantastical landscapes conjured up by the words of many classical authors and poets including Homer.
By 1900, Moran had made several journeys to the American West, visiting the areas in and around Yellowstone National Park, to which he would return every year until his death in 1926. Moran was by this period an acclaimed landscape artist. Thurman Wilkes writes, "Moran was always aware of how short of the real vision his best work fell, but the realization did not discourage his concentration on the grander affects of nature. These, at times, Moran liked to manipulate in fanciful scenes, often illustrating themes from literary romance, and the Critic found him 'at his best' on such occasions, 'when his imagination is moved by something weird or wonderful in his subject.' He represented scenes from The Odyssey--in 1892 The Lotus Eaters and later Ulysses and the Sirens." ("Pictures by Mr. Moran," Critic, Vol. XXX, no, 783, February 20, 1897, p. 132, quoted in Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains, pp. 207-208) Ulysses and the Sirens from 1900 is an impressive work that reveals Moran's masterful painting technique.
Ulysses and the Sirens portrays Ulysses's ship passing the rocks of the Sirens. The particular topography described in this passage afforded Moran the perfect opportunity to demonstrate his unparalleled skill in creating majestic rock formations and illusory landscapes bathed in ethereal light. The following passage from The Odyssey, translated in 1900, would have provided key visual elements from which Moran could work to create the present picture: "First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If anyone unwarily draws into too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give you coherent directions as to which of two courses your are to take; I will lay the two alternatives before you, and you must consider them for yourself. On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks against which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; the blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Of these two rocks the one reaches heaven and its peak is lost in a dark cloud. This never leaves it, so that the top is never clear not even in summer and early autumn." (Homer, The Odyssey, trans. by S. Butler, 1900, reprint 1993, New York, pp. 148-149)
Moran in Ulysses and the Sirens depicts the gathering of Sirens in a lush, emerald green field near a churning deep blue sea. The most striking aspect of the composition is its dramatic landscape comprised of a rugged, uneven coastline and in the distance the looming rocks and imposing snow-capped mountains. The silhouette of these formations the color effects of the setting sun are not too dissimilar from his portrayals of the impressive landscapes of Yellowstone.
Moran's landscapes present a grand vision of light, space and the majesty of nature, in a real or imaginary world. In 1900, the time Ulysses and the Sirens was completed, one critic observed: "Essentially a colorist, a master of technique and form, Thomas Moran is beyond all else an 'individualist.' He has never been a mere copyist, even of Nature. All that he does is directed by an imagination so poetical, and yet so clear, and truthful, that his work is more akin to creation than reproduction." (R. Ladegast, Truth Magazine, September 1900, in N.K. Anderson, Thomas Moran, New Haven and New London, 1998, p. 265).
This painting will be included in Stephen L. Good's and Phyllis Braff's forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's work.
Since early in his career in Philadelphia, Moran was inspired by the landscape untouched by man and sought inspiration from not only his immediate surroundings, but from literary sources. Thurman Wilkins writes: "At the onset his love of nature was for the pristine state, landscape unspoiled by encroachments from civilizations. There was little charm for him in the commonplaces of human life. He preferred the natural scene before it was reduced or marred by the hand of man. But the young artist could not afford to go beyond a radius of one hundred miles to two from Philadelphia. Hence, between painting scenes on the Schuylkill or the Wissahickon, the Delaware, Susquehanna, or Raritan Bay, he moved in imagination to places that were wilder, more distant, more exotic. He was stirred, for instance, by his reading in Shelley." (Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 26) In 1856, Moran finished Among the Ruins He Lingered, a painting based on the poem entitled Alastor about a melancholy quest of a poet. The work was considered the artist's first significant canvas. As one critic later observed: "The subject was highly characteristic of his mental cast, for imagination is perhaps his master quality." (S.G.W. Benjamin, "A Pioneer of the Palate, Thomas Moran," Magazine of Art, Vol. V, February 1882, p. 90) Moran throughout his career would take imaginative journeys to the fantastical landscapes conjured up by the words of many classical authors and poets including Homer.
By 1900, Moran had made several journeys to the American West, visiting the areas in and around Yellowstone National Park, to which he would return every year until his death in 1926. Moran was by this period an acclaimed landscape artist. Thurman Wilkes writes, "Moran was always aware of how short of the real vision his best work fell, but the realization did not discourage his concentration on the grander affects of nature. These, at times, Moran liked to manipulate in fanciful scenes, often illustrating themes from literary romance, and the Critic found him 'at his best' on such occasions, 'when his imagination is moved by something weird or wonderful in his subject.' He represented scenes from The Odyssey--in 1892 The Lotus Eaters and later Ulysses and the Sirens." ("Pictures by Mr. Moran," Critic, Vol. XXX, no, 783, February 20, 1897, p. 132, quoted in Thomas Moran, Artist of the Mountains, pp. 207-208) Ulysses and the Sirens from 1900 is an impressive work that reveals Moran's masterful painting technique.
Ulysses and the Sirens portrays Ulysses's ship passing the rocks of the Sirens. The particular topography described in this passage afforded Moran the perfect opportunity to demonstrate his unparalleled skill in creating majestic rock formations and illusory landscapes bathed in ethereal light. The following passage from The Odyssey, translated in 1900, would have provided key visual elements from which Moran could work to create the present picture: "First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If anyone unwarily draws into too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give you coherent directions as to which of two courses your are to take; I will lay the two alternatives before you, and you must consider them for yourself. On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks against which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; the blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Of these two rocks the one reaches heaven and its peak is lost in a dark cloud. This never leaves it, so that the top is never clear not even in summer and early autumn." (Homer, The Odyssey, trans. by S. Butler, 1900, reprint 1993, New York, pp. 148-149)
Moran in Ulysses and the Sirens depicts the gathering of Sirens in a lush, emerald green field near a churning deep blue sea. The most striking aspect of the composition is its dramatic landscape comprised of a rugged, uneven coastline and in the distance the looming rocks and imposing snow-capped mountains. The silhouette of these formations the color effects of the setting sun are not too dissimilar from his portrayals of the impressive landscapes of Yellowstone.
Moran's landscapes present a grand vision of light, space and the majesty of nature, in a real or imaginary world. In 1900, the time Ulysses and the Sirens was completed, one critic observed: "Essentially a colorist, a master of technique and form, Thomas Moran is beyond all else an 'individualist.' He has never been a mere copyist, even of Nature. All that he does is directed by an imagination so poetical, and yet so clear, and truthful, that his work is more akin to creation than reproduction." (R. Ladegast, Truth Magazine, September 1900, in N.K. Anderson, Thomas Moran, New Haven and New London, 1998, p. 265).
This painting will be included in Stephen L. Good's and Phyllis Braff's forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's work.