Peter Moran

PETER MORAN
1841 – 1914

Peter Moran studied painting under his famous older brothers, Thomas Moran and Edward Moran. He also became one of the most respected etchers of the late 19th century, a period of time when a great many American east coast artists took up that printmaking technique. His love of animals and landscape made it natural that the settling of the western United States held particular fascination for him.

Although he had a studio in Philadelphia, Moran spent a great deal of time in New Mexico and Arizona recording everyday life in the countryside, towns, and pueblos. He was the first non-Native American to portray the culture of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. In 1890 he became the official artist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

He printed his own plates unlike many other artists who sent theirs to printing companies. In this way, he had more control over the quality of each print.

Moran became President of the Philadelphia Society of etchers and achieved public recognition though the American Art Review (not the later magazine by the same name), an extremely high quality quarterly that commissioned well known artists to produce original etchings that were bound and sold in their limited edition publication. The magazine, with its small list of connoisseur subscribers, was unable to sustain itself for long, publishing four yearly editions only from 1879 -1881 thus making all the etchings fairly rare and very collectible.

Moran’s paintings and etchings are in numerous museums including the Parrish Art Museum, Peabody Institute, Dallas Museum of Art, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, Amon Carter Museum, State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the National Cowboy and Western Museum.

This etching is signed in the plate, as was the practice before the 20th century when signing in pencil or ink in the margin became common.

“Burro Train - New Mexico”
etching SOLD
9 1/2’ x 6 13/16”
plus ample margins
unframed
This etching was published in the American Art Review in 1881.
$245.00