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Print A: A Glimpse of Conwy / Mary Nimmo Moran

Essay/Description

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?

Mary Nimmo Moran created this work during a visit to Europe in 1882 with her husband, the artist Thomas Moran (1837–1926). Nimmo Moran most likely etched the original copper plate on-site, outdoors, as was her preference.2 She may have spotted the girl walking along the harbor and been reminded of herself as a child. This trip was a homecoming for Nimmo Moran. Born in Strathaven, Scotland, she immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of ten, which is about the age of the young girl portrayed in A Glimpse of Conwy.3

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

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1 Although the Welsh use the spellings Conwyn and Conwy, both Nimmo Moran and Thomas Moran used the spelling Conway. There is a Conway Castle in Ireland, but this is the castle in Wales. Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 188; Morand, Thomas Moran: The Field Sketches, 63–64; and Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 266–67.
2 Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 26.
3 Nimmo Moran also created Cochrane’s o’the Craig, Strathaven (14.79a) and Conwy Castle (14.66a) on this European trip.

Curatorial Remarks

Etching and roulette, with rocker, second state. Sandra Pauly, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research 3.20.22

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Title(s): 
Print A: A Glimpse of Conwy; A Glimpse of Conway
Creator(s): 
Mary Nimmo Moran (Artist)
Culture: 
American
Date: 
1882
Materials/Techniques: 
printing ink on paper
Paper/Support: 
Portrait; single-sided 0.170- 0.174 mm Cream, wove handmade Sweden paper; textured surface from felts. Watermark on the lower PR corner Handmade Sweden with central honeycomb image; media located on felt side of support.
Classification: 
Object Type: 
Accession No: 
14.90a
Previous Number(s): 
1426.90A; 26012
Department: 
Not On View

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