Signed in pencil, "TMoran" in upper center on recto; Inscribed, "upper end of Cottonwood Canon" and "Aug 13 - 79" in upper left; Inscribed, "IV" in lower left.
"Thomas Moran, landscape painter, etcher, engraver, lithographer. Born February 12, 1837, at Bolton Lancashire (England) accompanied his family to Maryland in 1844, and studied painting with his brother Edward in Philadelphia during the mid-1850. In 1862 the two Moran’s' went to England for further study and came under the influence of Turner. Thomas visited Europe again in the same decade and several times in the later years. His fame rests largely on his large paintings of scenes in the Far West, including Yellowstone Park, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. His home was in Philadelphia until 1872 when he moved to Newark (N.J.) and shortly after to NYC. In 1916 he moved to Santa Barbara (Cal.) where he died on August 26, 1926."
