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

Nimmo Moran responded to the change in taste by increasing the size of some of her etchings, although she did not sacrifice the intimate quality found in her smaller works. The artist was always attentive to creating detailed renderings of botanicals, which served her well in Under the Oaks — Georgica Pond. Nimmo Moran captures the oaks in all their mature, gnarled glory as they form a natural arch through which we are treated to a private view. She depicts a variety of grasses and plants under the trees to draw us in further. Our eyes follow the stream to the tranquil pond in the distance, and as we linger for a moment to look over the cattle, we notice a figure on horseback tending them. A skillful composition with an abundance of features of visual interest encourages us to slow down and lose ourselves in this image of humanity and nature in harmony.³

—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,” 230–31.
² Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 286–89.
³ The Gilcrease collections includes six impressions of this print. 14.123c and 14.123d include a figure sitting next to a tree in the foreground. Georgica Pond is in East Hampton, Long Island, where Nimmo Moran and her husband, the artist Thomas Moran (1837–1926), spent most summers after 1878, building a home and studio there in 1883–84. Morand and Friese, Prints of Nature, 7. Other etchings by Nimmo Moran of East Hampton include East Hampton Barrens (14.75a), In the Sandhills (14.85j), The Goose Pond, East Hampton (14.88b), and "Tween the Gloaming and the Mirk” (14.92f).

The Gilcrease collections includes six impressions of this print. 14.123c and 14.123d include a figure sitting next to a tree in the foreground. Sandra Pauly, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research 4.14.22