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Thomas Moran's Grand Canyon Chromolithograph, c. 1912-1915 [154497]

Currency:USD Category:Art / Medium - Lithographs Start Price:2,000.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
Thomas Moran's Grand Canyon Chromolithograph, c. 1912-1915 [154497]
SOLD
2,000.00USDto b*******n+ buyer's premium (500.00)
This item SOLD at 2022 Aug 25 @ 08:18UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This remarkable chromolithograph, dated 1912, is a promotional piece used by the Atkinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to promote their interests at the Grand Canyon. "The Grand Canyon of Arizona" chromolithograph is in its original frame 41.5 x 33 inches, with an image size of approximately 34.5 x 25.5. The A T & SF RY owned the copyright to the painting from which the chromolithographs were made. The frame contains an original brass tag at bottom center. It is signed by Moran, dated 1912 in the left corner. There are numerous repairs, notably crinkles and small tears along the left bottom and right edges, though from a distance, most of these are invisible. This chromolitho is a rarity, particularly because the number of lithos made for advertising purposes is unknown, and since the railroad holds the copyright, it has never been reproduced.

Great American landscape artist Thomas Moran is known for his outstanding landscape paintings particularly of the American West. Moran (1837-1926) was a classically trained artist of the Hudson River School. During his lifetime he produced about 1500 oils and 800 watercolors, plus a plethora of illustrations for books and magazines. It was for one of these magazines that turned Moran's attention westward when asked to sketch the Yellowstone. That historic first visit to Yellowstone rendered Moran's first oil on canvas of a western theme in 1872 which was so terrifically outstanding that the painting was immediately purchased by the US Government for $10,000. With this fabulous rendering of one of nature's grandest scenes, Moran became the first artist to "tackle the huge horizons of the Yellowstone," and later of other seemingly endless horizons such as the Grand Canyon, which became his second target.

Moran proceeded to paint the Grand Canyon, "the Chasm of the Colorado," completed in 1874. Moran had also begun working with outstanding western photographer W.H. Jackson on joint projects involving the Yellowstone, Promontory Point and other projects controlled by the railroad. By 1892, the pair were a hot item. Edward P. Ripley, president of the Atkinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, was so moved by these paintings that he formed a marketing plan that would bring the art, the railroad, and tourists to the Grand Canyon and ultimately to other key scenic western destinations. He contracted with Moran for a painting of the Grand Canyon inclusive of ownership of the copyright. With the new contract in hand, Moran was off to the Rim. He took a train to Flagstaff, then a stage coach to the rim. But where to paint? What part of this magnificent twenty plus mile expanse should he paint?
The South Rim had become the hotspot in the 1890s, although very primitive. It had been known for decades, perhaps first from John Wesley Powell's journeys down the river (1869) inclusive of fabulous sketches.

Meanwhile, Bucky O'Neill, one of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, former sheriff of Yavapai County and mayor of Prescott had the idea to run a railroad from Williams, Arizona to the rim of the Grand Canyon. He enlisted the help of New York investment bankers Lombard, Goode & Co., who in turn promoted the idea to the Atkinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway officials. The Grand Canyon Railway was duly incorporated in 1897, and was completed to the rim in a scant four years, with the first run on the railroad September 17, 1901.

Ripley was not just satisfied with a railroad to the rim. He built the El Tovar Hotel (1902-5) and later Bright Angel Lodge which were originally a cabin and tents erected about 1896 until the hotel was built in 1935, also creating the Fred Harvey restaurants.

Among the first Grand Canyon promoters were the Kolb brothers, who decided in 1902 to make the Rim their home. At the top of the Bright Angel trail, the site where numerous cabins and tents housed the few adventurous explorers, the Kolbs built a stone house, completed in 1906. Ellsworth Kolb later published a landmark work "Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico" (1914). The Kolb house today is a fabulous art museum of Grand Canyon paintings.

The trailhead at the Bright Angel trail had become the central focus point for incoming people. Since the railroad had planned to bring their new rail line to this same point, it made sense for Moran to paint a view from there. Moran's choice is timeless. His original "Grand Canyon of the Colorado" piece made specifically for the A T & SF RY was completed in 1908, after the completion of the railroad, the construction of the El Tovar, and the Kolb House. Moran went on to paint many more views of the Grand Canyon. While the original commission was completed in 1908, it appears further commissions were made including this 1912 painting.

Railroad president Ripley, and his advertising manager William H. Simpson, were not through with their plans for railroad promotion through art. They continued to hire other artists, particularly William Leigh, to paint other western scenes that were along the ATSF route or nearby destinations. These artworks were turned into some of the most beautiful promotional advertising posters ever made, very collectible today.

The Grand Canyon was made into a National Park in 1919. The railroad came to a halt during the boom of the "Route 66" publicity, and was revived in the 1980s, today a very popular train ride. [Fred Holabird]

(refs: K. L. Bryant, Jr, The Atkinson, Topeka & Santa Fe railway and the Development of the Taos and Santa Fe Art Schools" as published on the web, c 2010; National Park web histories and other sources)


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State: Arizona
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