Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)

Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice

Details
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice
signed with initials in monogram and dated 'TMoran·1915.' with artist's thumbprint (lower right)--inscribed with title (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted in 1915.
Provenance
August Heckscher, Huntington, New York, by 1920.
Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York, 1959.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries Inc., New York.
Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas, acquired from the above, 1971.
Private collection.
Turak Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by 2004.
Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York.
Private collection, New York, acquired from the above, 2005.
Sotheby's, New York, 17 May 2012, lot 53, sold by the above.
Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, acquired from the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2014.
Exhibited
Huntington, New York, Heckscher Museum of Art, The Moran Family, June-July 1964, no. 56.
East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall, November-December 1965.
New York, Spanierman Gallery, LLC, A Century of American Art: 1850-1950, Paintings, Sculpture and Works on Paper, October 2004.

Lot Essay

This work will be included in Stephen L. Good's and Phyllis Braff's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.

In May 1886 Thomas Moran traveled to Venice for the first time. A popular subject of interest and nostalgia in the late nineteenth century, Venice was certainly already a familiar place for Moran through the writings of Lord Byron and John Ruskin and depictions by J.M.W. Turner. Nonetheless, he was amazed by the splendor of the place, writing to his wife Mary, "Venice is all, and more, than travelers have reported of it. It is wonderful. I shall make no attempt at description..." (as quoted in N.K. Anderson, et al., Thomas Moran, New Haven, Connecticut, 1997, p. 122) Upon his return, Moran immediately set to work on studio oils, and, from that point forward, he submitted a Venetian scene almost every year he exhibited at the National Academy. "The subject became his 'best seller.'" (Thomas Moran, p. 123)

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