Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book!
I don't know what's the deal with the other customer who gave feedback, it's a great book. I saw it for the first time at a Museum bookstore and have it on it's way. I love Thomas Moran's work. This is the only book I know of with this large quantity of Field Sketches by Moran. I spent some time looking at the book while at the museum. It made me (an experienced animation artist) and my drawing partner (an Imagineer) get really pumped about doing some field sketchbook work. The scale of the drawings doesn't matter much. They're just great to see. Can't wait until it gets here!!

Disappointing
This book was not represented accurately in the on-line synopsis. Only 8% of the illustrations are in color (small scale) and the remaining 92% are "very small" (tiny) and undisernible in resolution and detail. This book is specifically to be used only as an inventory catalogue of Thomas Moran's sketches, and is not intended for fine art study. Only art collectors, curators, and/or dealers may find this book of interest and value. The book arrived with minor dents on the cover. I found this publication disappointing. ... Read more

Product Description
Thomas Moran`s paintings of the American West secured his place as one of the most important landscape painters of the late nineteenth century. This lavishly illustrated book-a survey of Moran`s work throughout his career-presents nearly one hundred of his works, reproduced in color, along with essays by leading authorities that explore his virtuosity in various fields.Amazon.com Review
Thomas Moran hiked through the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone in1871, when most folks back East thought that stories ofhundred-foot-high geysers, thousand-foot-deep canyons, and such wereprobably hogwash. After he submitted his glorious paintings of cliffs,rapids, and sun-struck vistas, Americans were finally persuaded thatthe West was as real as it was wild.It is largely because of Moran'sglowing, oil-painted testimony that a formerly skeptical U.S. Congresssoon preserved those spectacular lands.This book is the catalog ofthe 1998 retrospective of Moran's work, which opened on the 125thanniversary of the dedication of Yellowstone National Park. Anderson'sessays cover every phase of Moran's life and career, from his work asan illustrator and printmaker to his success as one of the gentlemanpainters of New York City. It contains scores of archival photographsof the rather theatrical Moran as he aged, with his ever-lengthening,ever-whitening chin whiskers, and such treasures as a long letter hewrote from Yellowstone to his beautiful wife, Mary, in which heblithely describes rattlesnakes, tarantulas, and wolves observed atclose range. The letter is signed "Your loving Hub." Along with AlbertBierstadt, Frederick Church, John Frederick Kensett, and other19th-century landscape painters, viewers often associate Moran withwhat he called "a wonderful age," the optimistic years between theCivil War and the Great War. This book contains plates of everyquintessentially American scene he painted--the pulsing sunset overthe pristine wilderness, the windswept mountain pass, the misty,rushing stream. A scholarly book, it nonetheless captures much of thewonder Moran and his peers felt for the vast Western landscape and theglowing future it represented. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

amazing
this book is chalk full of amazing images and beautiful reproductions. Filled with paintings in both oil and watercolor this book is a must buy for aspiring landscape painters. this book reveals Moran's intimate knowledge of the landscape and his intricate and very sophisticated use of numerous mediums. If you enjoy the hudson valley painters , there is no doubt that this book should grace the shelves of your studio or library.

Great Historical Resource, Underwhelming Art Book
As a resource on Thomas Moran, this book, published for the exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., is invaluable. It contains four biographical essays by Nancy K. Anderson, associate curator at the National Gallery, that do an excellent job of fleshing out Moran and his life. The appendices further enlighten the reader on Moran and his time in the west, including a first hand account from the 1873 Grand Canyon expedition. As a biographical reference on Thomas Moran, there is no better resource.

But, as an art book of Thomas Moran's work, this book just doesn't delivery. Yes, the color reproductions are stunning; but, for a book of its size, the prints are tiny. Panoramic images that should span two pages are smaller than the postcards I sell in my bookstores.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

stunning paintings
The paintings are revelatory, the reproductions are sharp and beautifully reproduced, and the colors simply shine. Unfortunately, they are also very small, often not much larger than a big postcard, and even where a whole page has been devoted to a painting, artful layout with large white borders has reduced the actual reproduction to 70% of the size it could have been. With such monumental landscapes, I think that this is a great drawback that leaves me squinting in frustration. These are the sort of paintings which should be reproduced in large format, with plates showing details of sections of the painting. Such a pity when the quality of the book is superb in every other sense, and a missed opportunity. Needless to say, the layout and font is also perfect.

An Amazing Book
My wife and I were looking for a Thomas Moran book with LOTS of reproductions of his pictures.This book appeared to be what we were looking for.I had Amazon find a copy for me and I gave it to my wife as abirthday present.It was perfect.Lots of reproductions.Lots of goodinformation.Well-organized.

Moran is a favorite
This book is the next best thing to seeing a Moran in a Museum. I'm a landscape artist and love his work. The book took me out West where Moran painted and made me feel the experience. A fantastic experience! ... Read more

Product Description
Presenting the first in-depth study of Thomas Moran's early western landscapes, Joni Louise Kinsey describes how the artist created three monumental paintings—The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone (1872), The Chasm of the Colorado (1873-74), and The Mountain of the Holy Cross (1875)—that, in the aftermath of the Civil War, evoked the nation's spiritual journey and suggestsed its cultural upheaval. The author describes how the paintings reflected a new national identity of both failure and promise, and helped open the West for tourism and travel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

where's the color?
A bit of a major disappointment for a book with good B/W illustrations, this is a book about one of the great colorist painters of landscape art. Disheartened.

thomas moran and the american west
This is one of the most extensive books on Thomas Moran's life.The Smithsonian recently published it (1992).It also has an excellent assortment of pictures of his works.For a complete overview of his work and life, this is the book to have. ... Read more

Product Description
Watercolor images of Yellowstone Park painted in the early 1870s by artist Thomas Moran shifted America's gaze westward. Published as a portfolio of chromolithographs by Boston lithographer Louis Prang, these brilliant reproductions--with a companion text on Yellowstone geology by explorer Ferdinand Hayden--were the first color images of our first national park widely available to the general public. As such, they helped shape America's growing fascination with the West.

The Yellowstone National Park portfolio, comprising nine images of Yellowstone and six of other sites, is also now regarded as the finest example of chromolithography ever produced. Yet today these images are less well known than Moran's dramatic oil paintings and are usually admired merely as curiosities of an obsolete technology.

Joni Kinsey, a preeminent authority on Moran, shows that these and other chromolithographs by the artist in fact had an important place in American visual culture and were a vital part of the artist's career. Thomas Moran's West reproduces this renowned collection, along with two dozen other color plates and over 100 black-and-white illustrations, to recapture their impact on the American imagination.

Chromolithography was outmoded by 1900 but represented an important transition in American art. Whereas previously published images of the West had been black-and-white engravings, Moran's chromolithographs had the vivid beauty of high art but could be acquired by individuals who couldn't afford originals. Today the prints are highly valued by collectors, who will appreciate seeing them with related field sketches and watercolors--and in some instances rare printer's proofs from Joslyn Art Museum. Kinsey describes the making and popularity of "chromos," chronicles the debates over their artistic legitimacy, and tells how this medium competed with other forms of picture-making in the late nineteenth century. She also explores Moran's relationship with Prang and thoroughly analyzes the Yellowstone images--including those held back from publication.

Both a visual feast and an authoritative treatise, Thomas Moran's West gives us breath-taking images of unspoiled wilderness as it sheds new light on how artistic portrayals of the West contributed to our national identity.

This book features 167 photographs, 50 in full color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superior publication on lithography.
The superior color print quality of the many Thomas Moran oil painting, watercolor and chromolithograph reproductions herein distinguishes this book from many others. The Louis Prang chromolithographs from the mid 1800s taken from these works established an historic milestone in printmaking. Never before in contemporary art historic literature has such attention been paid to Moran's "Yellowstone Portfolio" and the chromolithography movement in general.Author Joni Kinsey places Moran, Prang and chromolithography within their cultural contexts."Thomas Moran's West" is one of only two published current studies on the subject of chromolithography and the only on Moran chromos.The other is "Democratic Art: An Exhibition on the History of Chromolithography in America 1840-1900". Few of Moran's numerous b/w etchings are represented. For the etchings see "The Prints of Thomas Moran in the Thomas Gilcrease Institute" by Anne Morand and Nancy Friese. "Thomas Moran's West" is highly recommended but not at the price quoted by these sellers. I was lucky and got a discarded library copy that is in perfect condition for a mere $99.00! ... Read more

Product Description
13 of Moran's marine paintings and their significance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Turner, an impressionist before Impressionism
I have discovered Turner, a painter that painted in impressionist fashion well before the Impressionists. His works are masterpieces, and this book on watercolors is a significant presentation of his work. The book was in excellent conditions.

Master of Atmosphere
The watercolors of JMW Turner have the concise, simplified vision of contemporary art even though they were painted in the mid 1800's. This survey shows the progression of this master of light and delicate colorfrom tightly delineated landscapes to the atmospheric , nearly abstractvistas of his late career. The reproductions are supported by quotesselected from writings contemporary to the paintings. This book provides aninspirational overview of the work of Turner and belongs in the library ofthe serious watercolor artist. ... Read more

Product Description
Rarely in the history of American art does one find afamily of artists as extensive as the Morans.The Peale family ofPhiladelphia comes to mind, but such examples are few and far between.Of all the Moran family members, Thomas Moran is the most renowned,famous for his expansive panoramas of the American West from the 1870sto the turn of the century.However, with his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran,also an artist, the two shared a pronounced interest in painting theterrain of New Jersey and East Hampton, Long Island and becameprolific watercolorists and etchers of eastern views.This bookhighlights previously unknown watercolors by both Thomas and MaryNimmo Moran in addition to a selection of their etched works.Whilecontemporary scholarship regards Thomas Moran as the foremost painterin the family, many of the Morans were accomplished artists and heldpositions of great importance in the late nineteenth century.Thispublication addresses the artistry of multiple members of the extendedMoran family including painted seascapes, portraits, and genre scenesby Edward, his son Leon, and Peter Moran, brother to Edward andThomas. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Cultural Geography, published by JCG Press on February 1, 2008. The length of the article is 10544 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Imagining heaven and earth at Mount of the Holy Cross, Colorado.(Report)
Author: Kevin Blake
Publication: Journal of Cultural Geography (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2008
Publisher: JCG Press
Volume: 25Issue: 1Page: 1(30)

Article Type: Report

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

About This Book...
Handsome book from Gibbs M. Smith: green cloth over boards with black details. In Dustjacket. Sewn binding. 248 pp, 2.5 pounds.

Foreword, Preface, Index. 6 pp of End Notes and an 11 page Bibliography.

82 b&w plates and 34 color plates!

"Swedish-born Carol Oscar Borg arrived in the American West in 1903. Brilliant, ambitious, sensitive, and charming, he was soon adopted by the cultural leaders of Los Angeles' Anglo community -- Charles Lummis and his circle. Proud of themselves as westerners isolated from the rest of America, they thought they were at the dawn of a new era of spirituality. Instead, they were participants in the last bright flourishing of the romantic movement in America."

This book "at last places Borg alongside his more well-known contemporaries, Ed Borein, Charles Russell, Karl Bodmer, Victor Higgens, and Ernest Blumenschein, as one of the foremost painters of the American West."

"Author Helen Laird has used Borg's own journals and letters to reveal the artist as a keen observer and commentator on his own psychological states and on the times through which he lived. His biography is a moving study of the life, thoughts, and achievements of a major American artist."

Poignant and illuminating
Using the Swedish-born artists own journals and letters, Helen Laird writes a poignant biographical account of Carl Oscar Borg's life and achievements. Tracing his life from early beginnings in poverty in Sweden, we follow the aspiring young artist as he makes his way through France and England and eventually to the USA. For much of the time it is a struggle against poverty, at times destitution, until he eventually begins his slow move towards recognition and success. While he suffers misfortunes, these are far outweighed by the many opportunities which seem to fall at his feet; although reading the account one cannot help but think these opportunities only occurred in response to the obviously personable and very likeable handsome man that was Borg. We read time and again of those who were drawn to him in friendship from all walks of life; perhaps one of the most telling remarks relates to his time as a guest of Mrs Hearst: "Then he sat among the "noted" guests (they were usually eighteen at table), the servants hovering behind, as easily as he sat among bums or seal fishermen."

The text is illustrated with many back and white pictures, including photographs, oils and etchings, and following the text there are 32 pages of full colour plates. The book concludes with comprehensive Notes, Bibliography and Index.

This is a fascinating book, the account of Borg's life and his struggles makes for very moving reading, and the colour plates convey the scope of his work. The account also provides some insight into the art scene of the period generally, and particularly the West Coast art community. The quality of production maybe not up to today's standards, the colour plates being a little lack lustre; it is nonetheless a most valuable book to possess.
... Read more

Product Description
Great book featuring the art of the American West and the Western artists who produced it. 156 black and white illustrations of paintings and drawings. Native American Indians, horses, landscapes, portraits, cowboys, cattle, Calvary, Mountain Men, animals and other subjects. Artists include: Remington, Russell, George Catlin, Albert Bierstadt, Blakelock, Farney, Thomas Moran, John Mix Stanley and other artists. Biography of each artist.Softcover. 240 pages. Measures 6 1/2 by 9 1/4 inches. Interesting book, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
Great auction catalog featuring a variety of works of art and objects. Over 150 color illustrations / photographs of works in the auction - furniture, textiles, sculpture, prints, decorative arts, jewelry, clocks, Judith Leiber handbags, paintings by Berninghaus, works by Honore Daumier, Garnier, Goya, Rockwell, Thomas Moran, Toulouse-Lautrec, Hiroshige, Mat Hastings, JMW Turner, and other artists. Softcover. ... Read more