WRIT TEN BY DAVID MASELLO
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LAGUNA, NEW MEXICO, LOOKING FROM THE EAST
Thomas Moran (1837–1926) 1891, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, 9 3/8 in. x 12 3/8 in. Jackson Hole Art Auction, Wyoming, September 15 Estimate: $75,000– $125,000
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ROXANNE HOFMANN
Partner, Jackson Hole Art Auction
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FAC Auction (left page) Sep/Oct 18.indd 22
homas Moran (1837–1926) was one of those young men who did go West. So compelling were his 1871 sketches of the Yellowstone region that, a year after they saw his finished versions, members of Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant began the process of establishing Yellowstone as America’s first national park. Although Moran would later paint large oil canvases depicting the Grand Canyon and other natural wonders of the West — some of them now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum — his diminutive plein air works are equally coveted, including Laguna, New Mexico, Looking from the East, a watercolor, gouache, and pencil work on paper, signed and dated 1891. When one considers the desert heat and sun, and also the fact that Moran was riding a horse or mule in a remote region, it is remarkable that this drawing remains in such good condition. “The really interesting thing about this piece is that it displays all of his skills,” says Roxanne Hofmann, a partner in the Jackson Hole Art Auction, which will offer it on September 15; as in years past, this two-day auction is a collaboration of Trailside Galleries (Jackson, Wyoming) and the Gerald Peters Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico). “Moran’s hand is masterful here, with just a small amount of gouache used on the church as a kind of visual punch,” Hofmann explains. “And at first glance, you might overlook the tiny figures in the foreground, but he accents them with red and coral hues.” Like all artists drawn to the scale and sights of the American West, Moran was captivated by its light, the billowing clouds always moving above, and its palette of earth tones. “Moran made eight sketching trips to Laguna between 1871 and 1892,” Hofmann notes, “and he remained as fascinated by the colors of the New Mexico desert as he was by the indigenous people and the ancient built environment of the pueblo there.” Although the mission church and some of the ancillary structures depicted here date from the late 17th century, when the Spanish arrived, the area of the pueblo had already been occupied by indigenous people for many centuries. “The palette that Moran consistently uses, that he specialized in, is evident here.” Though the 11 previous editions of the Jackson Hole Auction have featured works by Moran, this, according to Hofmann, is the first Laguna subject. “Once again, we’re so pleased to have such an important artist in our sale. This depiction S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R
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of Laguna is so rare that we could easily see an institution wanting to acquire it for its collection. But there are also many private collectors of Moran, especially at a scale this accessible.” Moran was born in Britain, but his family came to America when he was young. His professional life began as an apprentice wood engraver in Philadelphia, though he soon moved on to New York and other locales, eventually winding up in Santa Barbara at the end of his life. Eager to capture in his paintings the atmospheric effects and nuances of the natural world, Moran made an important trip back to England in 1862 to see the works of J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and to understand how that master had rendered his turbulent seascapes and mistshrouded harbors. While this plein air work is a highly detailed depiction of the ancient pueblo from a distant point in the desert, it merges realism with suggestion, melding discernible built forms with natural ones. As Hofmann observes, “Moran really is America’s answer to Turner.”
F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M
8/14/18 11:09 AM
