On view
The Mirage
Artist: Thomas Moran (American, 1837 - 1926)
Date: 1879
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions:
25 1/8 x 62 3/8 inches (63.8 x 158.4 cm)
Frame: 37 1/2 × 74 1/2 × 4 inches (95.3 × 189.2 × 10.2 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Signed: T MORAN./ 1879. (lower left)
Credit Line: Purchase of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, 1977
Venue: Stark Museum of Art
Object number: 31.18.15
Accession Number:
1977.1.160
Label Text:The cliffs of Green River, Wyoming Territory, inspired Moran. The artist’s first sketch in the American West was a drawing of these cliffs, made in 1871. The Mirage, painted eight years later, presents one of Moran’s boldest and most romantic views. He portrays Indians riding into the distance in a watery mist with the weathered geologic forms as a backdrop. Moran omitted the evidence of the railroad that brought him to Green River. For his nineteenth century viewers, he presented an idealized West, a concept that continues to affect perceptions today.
Provenance: Reginald Vanderbilt, New York, New York; by inheritance to Consuelo Vanderbilt, New York, New York; Vanderbilt Family Collection, New York, New York; (Newhouse Galleries, New York, New York); purchased 1952 by Mr. and Mrs. Kay Kimbell, Fort Worth, Texas; 1964 Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas; purchased October 10, 1977 through (Gerald Peters, Santa Fe, New Mexico) by the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art
In Collection(s)