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Thomas Moran
Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite Valley, 1904
At the turn of the 20th century, Moran was America's preeminent painter of western landscape. For over three decades, the artist traveled into the wilds of Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and California to capture the compelling natural elements and vistas still inaccessible to all but the most intrepid explorers. Returning to his studio in the East, he transformed his plein-air drawings into some of the most celebrated and influential landscape paintings, prints, and illustrations of his era.
This scene, based on field sketches made during his 1904 visit to Yosemite Valley in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, depicts majestic Bridalveil Fall as it thunders down to the face of a sheer granite cliff. Radiant in late-afternoon sunlight, the cascade strikes the valley floor behind a screen of iridescent mist. |