Thomas Moran, (1837-1926)

Venetian Scene 14 1/8 x 20 1/8in

Venetian Scene
signed with conjoined initials and dated 'TMoran / 1894' (lower right)
oil on canvas
14 1/8 x 20 1/8in

Provenance
Collection of Sylvia K. Keiser.
Estate of the above.
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 2007, lot 126.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

This painting will be included in Stephen L. Good and Phyllis Braff's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.

Born in Bristol, England, in 1837, Moran emigrated with his family to Philadelphia in 1844. He received early encouragement in his artistic pursuits by his elder brother Edward and the Philadelphia artists Paul Weber and James Hamilton. He was soon apprenticed to the engraving firm of Scattergood and Telfer. In 1862 he traveled to England with his brother Edward, where both artists found inspiration in the art of J.M.W. Turner. Thomas spent a good deal of time at the National Gallery studying the great master's work and produced a number of copies. The two brothers were also influenced by the writings of the artist, critic and Turner-champion, John Ruskin.

"The aim of the great inventive landscape painter, must be to give the far higher and deeper truth of mental vision rather than that of the physical facts must be to give the higher truth of mental vision, rather than that of the physical facts, and to reach a representation which, though it may be totally useless to engineers or geographers, and when tried by a rule and measure, totally unlike the place, shall yet be capable of producing on the far-away beholder's mind precisely the impression which the reality would have produced, and putting his heart into the same state." (J. Ruskin, Modern Painters, New York, 1847 vol. 4, p.2)

Indeed Turner's representations of Venice are a significant departure from the nearly three centuries of Venetian vedute tradition. Instead of recording the buildings with architectural and engineering accuracy, Turner sought to evoke the spirit of the experience. To Turner, the iconic structures of Venice; The Salute, Doges Palace, San Giorgio Maggiore, among others, served as a mutable backdrop to his compositions. Their actual positions could be moved and shifted in order to enhance the poetic impact of the scene. Moran certainly comprehended this adaptability of a landscape and was quoted as saying:

"Turner is a great artist, but he is not understood, because both painters and the public look upon his paintings as transcriptions of Nature. All that he asked of a scene was simply how good a medium it was for making a picture: he cared nothing of the scene itself. Literally speaking his landscapes are false; but they contain his impressions of Nature and so many natural characteristics as were necessary adequately to convey that impression to other... His aim is parallel with the greatest poets who deal not with literalism or naturalism, and whose excellence cannot be tested by such a standard... In other words, he sacrificed the literal truth of the parts to the higher truth of the whole." (G. Sheldon, American Painters, New York, 1881, p. 123-24)

Moran was to travel to Venice in 1886 and again in 1890. While there he was known to visit the home and salon of the fellow American Mrs. Arthur Bronson at her Casa Alvisi located on the Grand Canal. Artists such as Whistler and Sargent, as well as the literary figures Henry James and Robert Browning, also frequented this center of the Anglo-American school. In fact, Moran was to later have Browning's personal gondola transported to his home in East Hampton and set in the nearby Hook pond.

In the present work, we see much of what Moran learned from Turner's evocations of Venice. The pastel backdrop of the Doge's Palace, Campanile and Piazza San Marco set the scene, while the gleaming white domes of Santa Maria della Salute loom on the left to indicate the entrance to the Grand Canal. Reflections shimmer off the lagoon that is flanked by a flotilla of fishing boats. Moran chooses to populate the canal with fishing boats and their colorful, variegated sails to animate the composition rather than the dark, low-profiled gondolas. The boats are also crammed with passengers and appear to glow with an innate light. By contrast, the Dogana and much of the Grand Canal are enveloped in Payne's grey shadow. Overall, Moran has juxtaposed the various elements of the Venetian experience into an impression of the place, that did not exist in reality, yet in his words revealed higher truth.