Thomas Moran
American, born England, 1837 - 1926A Pastoral Landscape, 1889
On view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions43 1/8 × 61 1/8 in. (109.5 × 155.3 cm)
Image: 51 1/4 × 69 9/16 in. (130.2 × 176.7 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carroll McGregor Boutell in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Boutell, 1990.71
Part of the romantic tradition in late nineteenth-century landscape painting, Thomas Moran is most recognized for his idealized scenes celebrating the American West, though he depicted other areas, notably Florida and Long Island, New York. A work he showed in 1889, A Pastoral, is probably the Flint Institute of Arts' or a variant. In a review of the 1889 annual exhibition, a critic noted that "A Pastoral…possesses an undeniable scenic grandeur…Its only fault as a composition is that it is a little too perfect." Moran's paintings were largely produced from on-site sketches and completed in his studio. In A Pastoral Landscape, Moran has concentrated on the lushness of the low-lying Long Island marshland by giving a velvety quality to the paint surface.
