Lot Essay
The present work was reproduced as an illustration for American geologist Clarence E. Dutton's 1882 book Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District with Atlas. A copy of Dutton's atlas will accompany this lot.
The collaboration between Moran and Dutton was assigned by Major John Wesley Powell, and the artist contributed nine works to illustrate Dutton's text detailing the results of their geological surveys of the region. Thurman Wilkins writes of the present work, "His work for Dutton eventually came to a climax in The Transept, based on a sketch by William H. Holmes and published in the atlas to the Tertiary History—one of the best paintings of the Grand Canyon ever made..." (Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 90)
The collaboration between Moran and Dutton was assigned by Major John Wesley Powell, and the artist contributed nine works to illustrate Dutton's text detailing the results of their geological surveys of the region. Thurman Wilkins writes of the present work, "His work for Dutton eventually came to a climax in The Transept, based on a sketch by William H. Holmes and published in the atlas to the Tertiary History—one of the best paintings of the Grand Canyon ever made..." (Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 90)