Thomas Moran (1837-1926), The Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 1904, oil on canvas, 29½ x 60”
Thomas Moran first visited the Grand Canyon in 1873. The trip would have a profound and intense effect on him. His daughter, Ruth, would later recall: “To him it was all grandeur, beauty, color and light—nothing of man at all but nature, virgin, unspoiled and lovely.” Though Moran would return to the Arizona landmark, and paint it hundreds more times, The Grand Canyon of the Colorado would remain one of his most significant of all his Western works. The piece sold at a Christie’s auction in 2014. It would fetch nearly $12.5 million. —
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