Venice

Details

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Venice
signed with initials in monogram and dated 'TMoran. 1894.' (lower left)
oil on panel
5 ¼ x 8 ½ in. (13.3 x 21.6 cm.)
Painted in 1894.

Provenance

The artist.
Ms. Thorpe, 1894.
Ruth B. Moran, daughter of the artist, by 1938.
Dr. T. Edward and Tullah Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Gift to the present owner from the above, 1969.

Literature

Thomas Moran Papers, Gilcrease Museum, microfilm roll 3275, frame 1185.

Exhibited

Buffalo, New York, Canisius College, Works from the Hanley Collection at Canisius College, November 23-December 23, 1969, p. 7, no. 57.
San Francisco, California, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, The Dr. T. Edward and Tullah Hanley Memorial Collection, 1970, p. 15, no. 36.

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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Quincie Dixon Associate Specialist, Head of Sale

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Lot Essay

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) The present work is an Arabian Nights-style fantasy based on the Venetian canals.

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