Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite Valley (Primary Title)

Thomas Moran, American (born England), 1837 - 1926 (Artist)

1904
American
oil on canvas
United States
Unframed: 30 1/4 × 20 in. (76.84 × 50.8 cm)
Framed: 36 1/4 × 26 5/8 in. (92.08 × 67.63 cm)
61.45.1
At the turn of the 20th century, Moran was America’s preeminent painter of western landscape. For over three decades the artist traveled into the wilds of Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and California to capture the compellingnatural elements and vistas still inaccessible to all but the most intrepid explorers. Returning to his studio in the East, he transformed his plein-air drawings into some of the most celebrated and influential landscape paintings, prints, and illustrations of his era.
This scene, based on field sketches made during his 1904 visit to Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, depicts majestic Bridalveil Fall as it thunders down the face of a sheer granite cliff. Radiant inlate-afternoon sunlight, the cascade strikes the valley floor behind a screen of iridescent mist.
Signed lower left: "TMORAN. 1904"
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Huntington Harris
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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