A Cloudy Day on Long Island

Details

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
A Cloudy Day on Long Island
signed with initials in monogram 'TMoran.' and dated twice '1891' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm.)
Painted in 1891.

Provenance

The artist.
Charles B. Lawson, acquired from the above, 1892.
Estate of the above, 1912.
Sale: American Art Association, New York, 19-20 February 1912, lot 138, sold by the above.
Jacob Wertheim, by 1936.
Estate of the above, 1936.
Sale: American Art Association, New York, 10 January 1936, lot 62, sold by the above.
Julius H. Weitzner, Inc., New York.
Frank V. Gill, New York.
Estate of the above.
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 27 October 1977, lot 34, sold by the above.
Spanierman Gallery, New York, by 1978.
Private collection, Florida, acquired from the above.
Adelson Galleries, New York.
Acquired from the present owner from the above, 2009.

Literature

F.N. Levy, American Art Annual, vol. 10, Washington, D.C., 1913, p. 54.
American Art Annual, vol. 33, Washington, D.C., 1936, p. 534.
"Coming Auctions, American-Anderson Galleries: Wertheim et. al. Paintings," Artnews, January 4, 1936, p. 16, illustrated.
"Portraits Will Go on Sale This Week," The New York Times, January 5, 1936, p. N12.
"Art is Sold for $39,000," The New York Times, January 11, 1936, p. 13.
E.B. Labrot, "Thomas Moran: The East Hampton Paintings," University of Denver, Master's Research Paper, 1968, pl. 15, illustrated.

Exhibited

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fall 1891.
New York, Union League Club, Paintings by American Artists, January 14-16, 1892.
New York, National Academy of Design, Sixty-seventh Annual Exhibition, April 1892.
Massachusetts, Boston Art Club, n.d.
East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall, Thomas Moran: A Search for the Scenic—His Landscape Paintings of the American West, East Hampton, and Venice, November 29, 1980-January 25, 1981, pp. 28–29, no. 47.

Further details

This work will be included in Phyllis Braff’s, Stephen Good’s and Melissa Webster Speidel’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.

Conditions of sale

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Tylee Abbott Senior Vice President, Head of American Art

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Lot Essay

Thomas Moran and his wife first visited East Hampton in Long Island, New York, in the summer of 1878. The couple quickly fell in love with the quaint village "with its main street shaded by magnificent elms and poplar trees, and its quiet lanes where one might meet sauntering cattle or flocks of hissing, honking geese. It was so like a peaceful English village that it won Moran's heart and filled him with nostalgia. He remained loyal to it for the rest of his days. Two scenes he loved above all others, he once declared—the Grand Canyon of Arizona with its kaleidoscopic colors...and the town of East Hampton with its heartwarming, antique, rural charm." (T. Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966) Numerous other artists such as William Merritt Chase and Childe Hassam traveled to East Hampton as well, seeking serene settings for their summer work, thereby forming a small but impressive art colony. In 1884 Moran built "The Studio", the first fully equipped artist's studio in East Hampton, which became the artist's home until the end of his life.

A Cloudy Day on Long Island demonstrates how East Hampton appealed to the artist's romantic sense of color and his mastery of atmospheric effects. Allowing just a hint of ocean visible in the distance, Moran idealizes the grassy countryside by piling the sky with clouds and casting an ethereal breaking light onto the rich, green foliage. The effect is dramatic yet serene, "with land and sky united harmoniously by the light reflected from the surface of the painting." (R.G. Pisano, Long Island Landscape Painting: 1820-1920, New York, 1985)

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