Browse: Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran: Partners in Art

In November 1883, artists Thomas Moran (1837–1926) and his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran (1842–1899), purchased a plot of land for $1,500 on East Hampton, Long Island.[1] The couple first visited the town in 1878; thereafter, they rented cottages for the summer until 1883–84, when they built their own home and studio.[2] According to art historian Linda C. Hults, the couple’s visits to and eventual residence in East Hampton were an important component of their successful etching careers.[3] Their accomplishments as partners in art, however, began earlier; indeed, soon after they married.

Moran began courting Mary Nimmo when she was sixteen. She lived in Crescentville, Pennsylvania, where she had immigrated from Scotland in 1852 with her father Archibald Nimmo and her brother, Archibald Jr. Her mother died before the family came to the United States, so Mary often found herself on her own as her father and brother worked in the textile mills of nearby Philadelphia. We know little of Mary’s early years in the United States or the period when Thomas courted her, but certainly she learned about his artistic aspirations and his large family, which included several artists. Thomas and Mary were engaged a few years after they met and married on February 9, 1863.[3] They moved into the Moran family home, where they would remain for the next five years.

Mary now lived in a busy household where artists came and went from their studios and artistic production was an everyday part of life. The year before Thomas and Mary wed, his older sister Elizabeth married the painter Stephen J. Ferris, with whom Thomas shared a studio. Elizabeth and Ferris lived in the Moran home until 1870. The household also included Thomas’s brother Peter, who was establishing himself as a lithographer and painter, and his brother John, who was a photographer. Both Peter and John married in 1867, and their wives joined them in the family home—Peter’s wife, painter-etcher Emily Kelley, added another artist to the household. Although the oldest brother, the painter Edward Moran, did not live at home, he had a studio nearby that he often shared with his younger brothers.[5] It is not surprising that in a home filled with artists, Mary soon became interested in creating art herself, and she began to draw and paint. She first exhibited one of her paintings at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1869, where her husband and his brothers also presented their work.[6]

Mary always stated that her husband was her teacher,[7] but there were other members of the Moran family who could help educate and encourage her. Except for a year abroad from 1866 to 1867, when the couple traveled to England, France, and Italy to further their artistic education,[8] they remained in the family home until 1868.[9] In addition to the financial advantages of living with the Morans, the creative camaraderie enjoyed by the family probably became a firm foundation for the couple’s partnership in art.

The couple stayed in their own Philadelphia home for four years before they moved to Newark, New Jersey, to be closer to the art and publishing world of New York City. Thomas was often away on sketching trips to fulfill commissions during those years.[10] So numerous were his commissions and so prolific his output that scholars speculate Mary probably assisted him with his illustrative work, although she did not always receive credit.[11] The couple would also sometimes travel and sketch together. Mary accompanied Thomas to California’s Yosemite Valley in 1872 and to Florida in 1877, 1887, and 1891.[12] The couple took another European trip to England, Scotland, and Wales in 1882.[13]

During one of Thomas’s sketching trips in 1879,[14] Mary remained at home and began etching, a medium both she and her husband pursued throughout the 1880s. The couple’s depictions of the same locales in their etched works provide insights into the creative mind, and how two artists can portray the same place yet choose to focus on distinct features. Some of the couple’s most important works representing the same settings were their images of East Hampton.[15]

For more on the locales that featured prominently in their lives, their work, and their artistic collaborations, click on any of the images below. For more about the couple’s extended family, see the essay The Family Moran.

—Sandra Pauly, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research, 2021

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[1] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 202.

[2] Morand and Friese, Prints of Nature, 7. Thomas Moran hired Stafford Tillinghast to design and build the home and studio. Some materials used, including the interior staircase, the windows, and the leaded-glass panels for the front door, came from razed New York City buildings. See Woodward, East Hampton, 174; and Hefner, East Hampton’s Heritage, 64–65, 164.

[3] Hults, “Thomas Moran and the Landscape Print,” 31.

[4] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 47–50, 325n55.

[5] Wright, Domestic and Wild, 1:6–7, 15, 21n65, 164, 168–69.

[6] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 3–4, 93–96.

[7] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 50.

[8] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 55–58

[9] Wright, Domestic and Wild, 1:6, 15.

[10] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 112–13.

[11] Morand and Friese, Prints of Nature, 23; Peet, American Women of the Etching Revival, 31–32; and Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 71–72, 277. In 1873, Mary received a letter from Thomas admonishing her to work on her drawing skills while he was away, as he needed drawings for his commercial work, with which she could assist.

[12] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 152–58. The couple made trips to other locations that Nimmo Moran did not portray, including Madison, Wisconsin, in 1876; Virginia in 1881; and Venice in 1890. Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 149, 205, 208.

[13] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 222–31.

[14] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 160–61. His brother Peter accompanied Thomas on the excursion. This left Peter’s wife, the etcher Emily Kelley, on her own that summer as well. Vittoria speculates Emily Kelley may have provided her sister-in-law, Mary Nimmo, with instructions on etching.

[15] Hults, “Thomas Moran and the Landscape Print,” 31.

22 Items

Crescentville

“You need not a period of pupilage in an artist’s studio. . . . let me earnestly recommend to you one Studio which you may freely enter . . . —the Studio of Nature.”¹
—Asher B. Durand

Untitled [landscape]

“Thomas Moran the etcher, and Mary Nimmo, his wife, work side by side down in their studio on Twenty-second Street. Big tables near the light, on which are laid the plates while the artists are at work, are an important feature of their furnishings; but there are easels too, for before either of them was an etcher they were painters.”¹ —Elizabeth Bisland, The Cosmopolitan, 1889

Fort George Island

Thomas Moran’s depiction of Fort George Island evokes the spirit of a cheery, sunny day of relaxation in Florida. The curve of the palm tree suggests its rhythmic sway in warm, tropical breezes; a palette of pale blues and greens creates a lighthearted mood; and the low horizon line allows for a vast expanse of sky to preside over the tranquil landscape.

Print G: Evening on the St. Johns River, Florida

Mary Nimmo Moran’s Evening on the St. Johns River, Florida presents a striking view of the twilight hour, as the sun descends through the clouds and a flatboat glides across the waterway toward shore.¹ Silhouetted against the evening sky, pines draped with Spanish moss create an ambience of tropical ease. Flanking the towering pines are palm trees of less lofty height, and the uneven tree line generates long, undulating shadows in the water, enhancing the mood of nightfall.

Print B: Point Isabel, Florida

“Scarcely a tree or shrub shades the solitary spot and the barren wave-washed strand presents the appearance of supreme desolation. Treated by a less skilled hand, the scene would be tiresome, monotonous, and lacking in interest. Instead, it bears the stamp of originality and is imbued with a strong poetic sentiment.”¹ —A. De Montaigu on Mary Nimmo Moran’s Point Isabel, Florida

Print A: Cochrane's o'the Craig, Strathaven

Born in Strathaven, Scotland, Mary Nimmo Moran immigrated with her family to the United States when she was ten. The artist returned to visit her birthplace in 1882 and created this etching, Cochrane’s o’the Craig, Strathaven, which is perhaps evocative of childhood memories of thatched-roofed cottages on the banks of the Avon Water.¹ Her husband, artist Thomas Moran (1837–1926), accompanied her on this trip, and his etching depicting Strathaven Castle (14.393c) shows the area from a different point of view.

Print A: A Glimpse of Conwy

Sheltered under the towering trees that dwarf her diminutive size, a young girl gazes out across the waterway before her. In the background, Wales’s Conwy Castle rises, a dreamlike apparition behind its stalwart walls.¹ Curiously, the child seems more interested in what lies out beyond the quay rather than the impressive medieval fortress. What adventures might await anyone daring enough to venture across the waters?

Print A: Conwy Castle

Mary Nimmo Moran took an unusual compositional approach to her depiction of Wales’s Conwy Castle. The fortress, in the middle ground, and the sailing vessels, in the foreground, occupy almost the same amount of pictorial space, and the artist lavished detail on both. Thus, despite the title, we are unsure which is the subject of the work. Our eyes move back and forth, exploring both the citadel and skiffs almost simultaneously. The boats look to be in good repair, most probably contemporary vessels still in use, although they hark back to older sailing traditions. The stone walls of the citadel appear well maintained, the structure possibly still serviceable although it dates to the thirteenth century, far older than the wooden boats. Both are from a preindustrial age, however, and that seems to be the point—this was an old world that a new age had not yet intruded upon.

Conwy Castle

In this watercolor sketch by Thomas Moran, the crenelated towers of Conwy Castle float apparition-like amidst expanses of ivory sky, blue water, and gray-green land. The only signs of human habitation are the masts of the sailing ships in the bay. Located on an estuary at the mouth of the River Conwy near the coast of northern Wales, the town and citadel date to the thirteenth century, the fortress built during the conquest of Wales by Britain’s King Edward I.¹

Pass at Glencoe Scotland

Although the mist partially obscures our view of the Scottish Highlands, it cannot hide the wonderful interplay of dusky hues in this stunning watercolor by Thomas Moran.¹ The work depicts the bridge over the River Coe, which flows through a glen hemmed in by steep cliffs that are surrounded by even loftier mountain peaks. Moran leads us into the image via the river, its blue-gray waters rimmed by rocks topped with the golden tans and russet browns of peat moss. The waterway directs our attention to the bridge, where a horse-drawn carriage exits the stone span just as a herd of cattle followed by a cowherd begins to cross.² The stagecoach probably departed from Glencoe, the small village that lies between the bridge and mountains. Although we cannot see the town, and fog enshrouds the mountains, we can discern small rivulets on the hillsides as they wend their way down to the Coe. Glencoe is sometimes referred to as the “weeping valley,” a reference to the town’s history rather than its topography, for this is the site of the massacre of the MacDonalds in 1692.³

Near Feltville, N.J.

During the summer of 1878, Thomas Moran spent several weeks in and around Feltville, New Jersey, sketching more than a dozen images of the partially abandoned mill town.¹ In this ink wash, the artist used gouache for the crisp, white clouds above the building and the reflections in the stream below. Mature trees and lush grasses surround the mill, creating a very different view of a factory town than Moran depicted in his etching Communipaw, N.J. (14.430a-u), or even in a scene from his birthplace in England, Toothill Bridge, Bolton, Lancashire (02.801). Feltville, was, in fact, planned as an alternative to densely populated and polluted industrial towns.

Print A: East Hampton Barrens

The title of this etching, East Hampton Barrens, alludes to the broad, seemingly desolate stretch of sand depicted in the foreground. Mary Nimmo Moran’s portrayal of the plants that manage to grow on these windswept dunes, however, suggests there is life here. The trees to our right create a windbreak for the building peeking out to the side. A solitary figure approaches on the horizon, drawing us back to another arboreal line, behind which is one of the town’s windmills.¹ Nimmo Moran transforms what may at first appear a bleak landscape into a place where humans and nature have found the means to coexist.

Print J: In the Sandhills

A path between the dunes leads us into this scene of a blustery day at the beach. As we follow the trail back, we notice the silhouette of a woman standing by a fence that separates her from the sea. Clouds roll in above her and a darkening sky presses down ominously on the horizon. We can see sheets of rain in the distance, and although the full fury of the storm is approaching, the woman stands rooted in place, transfixed by the power of nature.

Print B: The Goose Pond, East Hampton

In the etching The Goose Pond, East Hampton, a small path on the right leads us into the trees, where we see geese gather and feed in the reeds. Some birds have taken to the pond, and the waters lead us back to another line of trees that directs us to the opposite shore. There we explore the features of the rustic windmill, and as our gaze moves upward, we see great, whirling masses of clouds in the sky.

Print C: A City Farm, New York

Urban scenes are an anomaly in the etched works of Mary Nimmo Moran, but A City Farm, New York is not your typical view of metropolitan life. In the foreground, a figure leads a horse-drawn cart laden with produce, and the field from which such bounty came stretches out behind them. Between the rows of what appear to be cabbages, several figures bend to their work of tending the crop. A rambling series of rustic buildings suggests additions to the original homestead. These older structures serve as a line of demarcation separating farm from city. The artist employed a light hand to delineate the orderly line of townhomes springing up all around this city farm.

An Apple Orchard - East Hampton, L.I.

A tangle of tree branches that have shed their leaves, empty wooden crates on the ground, and a lone ladder suggest that the autumnal activity of apple picking has come and gone. The workers have departed, the orchard is empty, and Thomas Moran has made the trees his primary focus. This modest subject may seem an interesting choice for an artist best known for his majestic images of the western United States, such as the Grand Canyon (see, for example, The Grand Canyon, 01.2351); however, Moran’s simple scenes of life in East Hampton, Long Island, account for about a quarter of his etchings. Moran and his wife, the artist Mary Nimmo Moran (1842–1899), made their home on East Hampton for part of the year, and the locale features prominently in her works, such as The Goose Pond, East Hampton (14.88b).¹

Sunrise - The Pond, East Hampton, L.I.

Thomas Moran chose a panoramic view to depict this glorious dawn over East Hampton, Long Island. This stunning vista includes broad flatlands and a calm waterway that stretch out to the horizon, where the rising sun breaks through the clouds. The road is worn and rutted, but as we take in the breathtaking scene before us, the prospect of our journey into the new day is a welcoming one.¹

Print F: 'Tween the Gloaming and the Mirk'

Come all ye jolly shepherds,
That whistle through the glen,
I’ll tell you o’ a secret
What is the greatest bliss
That the tongue o’ man can name?
’Tis to woo a bonnie lassie
When the kye come hame.

Print A: Under the Oaks - Georgica Pond

Under the Oaks — Georgica Pond is one of Mary Nimmo Moran’s few ventures into producing etched works on a large scale. The plates used for most of the artist’s etchings measure around 7 1/2 by 11 1/2 inches. The plate for this work, however, measures a surprising 19 3/8 by 30 3/4 inches. Nimmo Moran liked to etch outdoors directly from nature, and she preferred using small plates easily held in her hands.¹ Moreover, etched works became popular with collectors because of their small size: the owner could hold the print while closely examining all of its intricacies. By the late 1880s, however, the fondness for small etchings waned among collectors, and larger works for prominent display in the home became the trend.²

Print A: Landscape after Rousseau

In this etching, Mary Nimmo Moran captures the spirit of the works of the French Barbizon artists and one of the group’s founding members, Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867). We must look carefully for the figures bending to collect reeds at the edge of the pond, so skillfully are they integrated into the composition. This suggestion of the oneness of humanity with nature was a hallmark of the Barbizon group, and their imagery became popular with collectors in the second half of the nineteenth century as a reminder of a simpler life and an antidote to an increasingly industrialized world.

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