Thomas Moran 1837 To 1926 : ‘The Turner Of The American West’

Wed 2 February 2011

Roger Mitchell

Roger Mitchell studied History at Oxford and Fine Arts at Leeds. He was awarded a Churchill Scholarship to travel and study in the USA.

Roger is a former College Vice -Principal who now lectures for the University of Liverpool and Adult Residential Colleges. He organises and leads Country House Study Tours and tries to find time for research at Chatsworth.

The great landscape painter, Thomas Moran, deserves to be as well known in England as he is in America. He was born in Bolton in 1837, emigrated with his parents to Philadelphia but returned to study Turner’s paintings.

Explorer as well as artist, he was a member of the first expedition to the Yellowstone and accompanied John Wesley Powell to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. His great paintings of these extraordinary places were purchased by Congress and for the first time showed the grandeur and the colour of the West, helping Americans to understand and appreciate their heritage. Paintings by Thomas Moran are hung at Bolton Art Gallery.