The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 14, 2024

Smelting Works at Denver

Smelting Works at Denver

1892
(American, 1837–1926)
America, 19th century
watercolor and gouache
Sheet: 24 x 31.8 cm (9 7/16 x 12 1/2 in.)
Bequest of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection 1938.56
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Moran sketched this image while waiting for his travel arrangements to be resolved, having learned that he received a commission for a large painting of Wyoming for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Description

For today's viewers of Thomas Moran’s watercolor, the sight of factory smoke pouring into pristine mountain air might prophesy environmental ruin. Yet within the context of America’s western expansion, the imagery of factories was more ambiguous. Some in Moran's time regarded the factories as a force of destruction, while others interpreted them as symbols of progress. Moran himself viewed Denver’s budding industry with enthusiasm, writing positively to his wife about the city’s growth since he first visited while part of a government survey in 1873. Two decades later, when Moran returned to Denver to paint advertisements for the Santa Fe Railroad, smelting—the extraction of metal from heated rock—had transformed the city into an industrial hub. Although the brooding tone of this watercolor is unlike the artist’s bright, misty-eyed paintings of Edenic splendor, his depiction of the west’s emerging industrial landscape reinforces the same myth of manifest destiny—the belief that settler conquest of Native American lands was inevitable and justified—by illustrating the land’s richness in natural resources. Like the English Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner, whose style he emulated, Moran was primarily interested in the pictorial possibilities of industry. In this impressionistic study, Moran manipulates gray wash and white gouache to capture the vaporous quality of smoke and clouds as the two substances, industrial and natural, dissipate into the yellow atmosphere.
  • 1926-1927
    (The Milch Galleries, New York, NY, cat no. 53.)
    1927
    (Biltmore Salon, Los Angeles, CA, January 1927, cat. no. 6, sold.)
    1927?-1938
    Henry A. [1856-1917] and Josephine P. [1866-1938] Everett, Cleveland, OH.
    1938-
    Bequest of Josephine P. Everett to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection.
  • Francis, Henry Sayles, "In Memoriam: Josephine Pettengill Everett 1866-1937," The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art No. 6/part II (June, 1938): 123-130. Mentioned, p. 129.
    Anderson, Nancy K., Thomas Moran, Joni Kinsey, and Anne Morand. Thomas Moran. 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 72, pp125-126, p. 143, p. 254, p. 400
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: cat. no. 90, pp. 216-217; p. 296
  • Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Thomas Moran Retrospective. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (September 28, 1997-January 11, 1998).
    America Draws. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1984-March 17, 1985).
    The Most Remarkable Scenery: Thomas Moran's Watercolors of the American West. Amon Carter Museum (organizer) (May 23-July 13, 1980); The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 5-October 5, 1980); Yale University Art Gallery (October 23, 1980-January 4, 1981).
    Water Colors by Thomas Moran, N.A., no. 6 (as The Smelters, Denver, Colorado). The Biltmore Salon, Los Angeles, CA (January 2 - January 29, 1927). No. 6
    Memorial Exhibition: Water Color Sketches by Thomas Moran, N.A., no. 53 (as The Smelters, Denver, Col., June 12). The Milch Galleries, New York, NY (December 20, 1926 - January 8, 1927). No. 53
    Water Color Sketches by Thomas Moran, N. A., no. 49 (as The Smelters, Denver, Colorado). Santa Barbara Art Club, Santa Barbara, CA (June 1925).
    The Works of Thomas Moran, no. 82 (as The Smelters, Denver). Denver Art League, Denver, CO (December 1892). No. 82
  • {{cite web|title=Smelting Works at Denver|url=false|author=Thomas Moran|year=1892|access-date=14 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1938.56