Moran Family of Artists
Essay
The Morans, a multi-generational family of American artists, lived and worked in Philadelphia during the second half of the nineteenth century. Some contributed to the development of Philadelphia’s art world while others learned their trade locally then left to pursue professions elsewhere. Landscapes and seascapes were prominent among their subjects, although some of the Morans painted figural and historical subjects. In addition to working in oils, they advanced the arts of etching, photography, and watercolor through exhibitions and their work as educators.
The family patriarch, Irish-born Thomas Moran Sr. (1802-62), a handloom weaver, moved to the United States in 1842. His wife, Mary Higson Moran (1807-83), joined him with their seven children in 1844; three more children were born after their move. The family settled in Kensington (then outside the city limits of Philadelphia), where the elder Morans joined a community of immigrant textile workers, many of them Irish.
The port city of Philadelphia was already a center for marine painting when Edward Moran (1829-1901), the oldest of the brothers, moved there from Kensington in 1855. Edward worked initially in the textile industry like his parents. One of his early supervisors, impressed with his drawing ability, reinforced his determination to become an artist. In the early 1850s he met the Philadelphia marine painter James Hamilton (1819-1878), who became his teacher and friend. He also learned from Paul Weber (1823-1916), a German-born landscapist who worked in Philadelphia during the 1850s and later. Edward exhibited for the first time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in 1854. Like his mentor Hamilton, he specialized in romanticized paintings of ships at sea, often with dramatic weather and lighting effects. Edward Moran taught painting to several younger artists including his brothers Thomas (1837-1926) and Peter (1841-1914). He was voted an Academician of PAFA (a full member) in 1860 and in the spring of 1871 moved to New York City. By the end of the century, he was recognized as one of America’s leading marine painters.
Eight years younger than Edward, Thomas Moran became the most famous of the brothers, best known for American landscape, a subject made popular earlier in the century by the Hudson River School painters. Thomas apprenticed in 1853 as a wood engraver at the Philadelphia engraving firm of Scattergood and Telfer. He also studied painting with his older brother Edward and with James Hamilton, who inspired both brothers to emulate the colorful sunsets and painterly handling of the English artist J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). In 1856 Thomas moved into Philadelphia to live with Edward. He exhibited watercolors at PAFA that year and was voted an Academician in 1861. Thomas Moran left for Newark, New Jersey, in the winter of 1871-72 and moved into New York City a decade later. Much of his later work in oils and watercolors featured landscapes of the American West. When Moran died he was eulogized as the “Dean of American Landscape Painters.”
Peter Moran, the youngest of the artist brothers, began his career as an apprentice with the Philadelphia printing firm of Herline & Hensel and worked briefly as a lithographer. He also trained as a chair painter’s apprentice in 1860 while studying easel painting with his older brothers Edward and Thomas. Peter Moran traveled to England to see the animal paintings of Edwin Landseer (1802-73). He specialized in bucolic eastern landscapes with animals and images of life in New Mexico, which he first visited in 1880 (not 1864 as previously thought) and that he captured in oil, watercolor, and etching.
Of the Moran brothers, Peter was the most active in Philadelphia’s growing art world. He joined the Philadelphia Society of Artists by 1880 and the Art Union of Philadelphia in 1887. Like his brothers Edward and Thomas he was a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club, and he helped found the Art Club of Philadelphia in 1887. As a founding member of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers in 1880 and president of the group until 1903, Peter was instrumental in Philadelphia’s etching revival of the 1880s. The Society’s first exhibition, held in the winter of 1882-83, included prints by several of the Morans. Peter exhibited thirty-seven etchings at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, where his painting The Return of the Herd received a medal. (It was placed in the spot formerly occupied by Thomas Eakins’ The Gross Clinic after the latter was moved to the medical pavilion.)
The Morans’ sister Elizabeth (1839-1913) expanded the family’s artistic dynasty when she married the painter Stephen James Ferris (1835-1915) in 1862. They may have met in 1860, when Ferris and Elizabeth’s brother Thomas learned etching from the engraver and publisher John Sartain (1808-97). Ferris was born in Plattsburgh, New York, and arrived in Philadelphia at the age of twenty-one to study at PAFA. He remained for the rest of his career, exhibiting his work and teaching at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. With Peter Moran and Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), Ferris was a founder of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. He also helped found the Philadelphia Sketch Club and gave etching demonstrations for the members. Ferris’s prints depict portraits and historical subjects.
Several members of the Moran family taught at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (later renamed Moore College of Art and Design). Thomas Moran and his brother-in-law Stephen Ferris spoke in a lecture series in 1865, and Thomas lectured there in other years. Ferris continued his affiliation with the school for nearly twenty-five years, teaching figure drawing and painting from live models and plaster casts of statues. Peter Moran’s tenure was longest. He began as a lecturer in 1866 and was elected professor in 1872, teaching etching as well as landscape painting in oil and watercolor until 1896.
John Moran (1831-1902), second oldest of the brothers, achieved notable contributions in photography. After beginning his career in lithography, he switched to the camera by 1859 and helped establish Philadelphia as an early center for photography. In 1864, several of his original landscape photographs were tipped-in as illustrations for the important journal Philadelphia Photographer. Moran argued for the artistic importance of photography in a lecture before the Philadelphia Photographic Society that was published in Philadelphia Photographer in April 1872.
John Moran also photographed Philadelphia architecture and street scenes. One series featured Mower General Hospital in Chestnut Hill, which was built in 1862 for the care of Civil War wounded. His work took him on the Darien Expedition of 1871-73, which surveyed the Isthmus of Panama in search of a canal route, and on an expedition to South Africa and Tasmania in 1874 to document the Transit of Venus (the passing of Venus in front of the sun). According to his obituary in the New York Times, John Moran was a leading photographer for the United States Coast Survey.
Scottish-born Mary Nimmo Moran (1842-1899), Thomas’s wife, contributed to printmaking and the etching revival of the 1880s. Noteworthy for the quality of her landscape etchings, in terms of image and technique, she was elected a member of the Society of Painters and Etchers of New York and was the only woman among the sixty-five original fellows of London’s Royal Society of Painters and Etchers. In the late 1880s, she and her sister-in-law Emily Kelley Moran (1841-1903) exhibited prints with the New York Union League Club and the Women Etchers of America in Boston. Mary Moran also painted landscapes in oils and watercolors.
Irish-born Emily Kelley Moran, Peter’s wife, exhibited prints for the first time at PAFA’s spring 1877 exhibition, although her work was mistakenly attributed to her husband. She exhibited etchings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1881 and in the first show of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers in 1882-83. Emily was described in 1889 as having a “considerable reputation as an artist, both as an etcher and painter.” She worked in both watercolor and oil, creating dark-toned landscapes in the Barbizon mode.
Stephen Ferris’ son, Jean Léon Gérome Ferris (1863-1930), was named for a French artist his father admired. The younger Ferris was nationally known for his series of seventy-eight canvases titled The Pageant of a Nation, the largest series of American history paintings ever made by a single artist. Widely distributed in museum collections across the country, several canvases in the series depicted historical events in Philadelphia.
The artistic dynasty founded by Thomas Moran, Sr. became one of the most culturally influential families of nineteenth-century America. Through their work across a wide range of media, their often foundational participation in arts organizations, and their work as educators, the Morans advanced the development of the visual arts both in Philadelphia and nationwide. Over a century since their creation, the Morans’ paintings, prints, and photographs continue to be celebrated, preserved, and displayed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and other museums and collections across the country.
Kate Nearpass Ogden, Professor of Art History at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey, received her Ph.D. from Columbia University, New York. Her publications have focused on nineteenth-century American painting and photography.
Copyright 2024, Rutgers University.
Gallery
Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli
Edward Moran (1829-1901) painted Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli in 1897, depicting the 1804 arson of the USS Philadelphia by the United States Navy to prevent the Tripolitans from utilizing the captured ship in the First Barbary War. General Stephen Decatur led 74 men to board the captured boat, which stood off the coast of present-day Libya, set the ship on fire, and escaped with no casualties to his entire crew. This painting was one of thirteen historical paintings made by Moran that depicted scenes of American naval history, spanning from the arrival of Leif Erickson to the return of the U.S. Navy from the Spanish American War. Moran brought his skills with light, texture, and detail to depict historical moments of great danger, chaos, victory, and discovery with exceptional brilliance and drama.
Grand Canyon of the Colorado River
Thomas Moran (1837-1926), who was born in England and then moved to Philadelphia in 1844, painted Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in 1892 and 1908 after being hired by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway to depict the beauty of the American West. In the 1890s parts of the American West were still largely unexplored, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway hoped to promote tourism westward. Moran, a well-known American landscape painter, depicts the vast Grand Canyon, showing the expansive nature of the American West and the sheer natural beauty of this dramatic landscape. Paintings such as these made the lure of westward expansion even more appealing.
Return of the Herd
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Peter Moran (1841-1914) created Return of the Herd in 1875 depicting a farmer and cattle traversing the hills of the Pennsylvania countryside following a light storm. This etching was one of 37 prints by Moran displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition held in his hometown of Philadelphia. It is part of Moran’s impressive repertoire of cattle and figure paintings and etchings. Moran spent much of his life contributing to the art scene of Philadelphia, serving as a member of the Philadelphia Society of Artists, the Art Union of Philadelphia, the Art Club of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers, and as faculty at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.
A Philadelphia Sketch Club Member on a Society of Etchers Outing, Near Doylestown
Stephen James Ferris (1835-1915), husband of Elizabeth Moran, was born in Plattsburgh, New York before moving to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). He became a prolific portrait painter, creating more than two thousand portraits in his lifetime. Ferris built his career in the Philadelphia art scene, working with artists like John Sartain (1808-1897), and Thomas and Peter Moran, as well as teaching at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. This etching depicts a fellow artist from the Philadelphia Sketch Club, which he helped found, sketching outdoors north of Philadelphia, one of the many examples of the etchings Ferris created throughout his lifetime.
Limon Bay, High Tide
John Moran (1831-1902) photographed Limon Bay, High Tide at the Isthmus of Darien, known today as Panama, after being hired as the official photographer for the expedition in search of a route for the Panama Canal. Limon Bay is located on the northern coast of Panama and eventually became the entrance of the Panama Canal from the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, photography was not considered a fine art because it was perceived as machine-made, but Moran strongly advocated for the medium. He addressed the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, arguing that photography belonged to the fine arts because it involved the same artistic decisions and appreciation for nature as painting or etching. Due to his work, Moran became an important early topographical, or landscape, photographer in the United States.
Newark, N.J., from the Passaic
Mary Nimmo Moran (1842-99), wife of Thomas Moran, etched Newark, N..J., from the Passaic in 1879 depicting the city of Newark in the midst of its industrialization during the nineteenth century. Moran illustrates the rapidly evolving city at a moment when the natural landscape was still preserved along the banks of the Passaic River. Nimmo Moran was well known for her detailed etchings and paintings of landscapes and had many of her art pieces exhibited at the New York Union League Club and the Women Etchers of America in Boston. Nimmo Moran was the first woman to be elected to the New York Etching Club and London’s Royal Society of Painter-Etchers due to her skill.
Belmont on the Schuylkill
Emily Kelley Moran (1841-1903), wife of Thomas Moran, etched Belmont on the Schuylkill in 1879 depicting the bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. Although much of her work was initially misattributed to her husband, Moran exhibited her etchings and paintings in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. She had a “considerable reputation as an artist, both as an etcher and painter.” She often painted in the Barbizon style, an art movement originating from France, which focused on the use of dark color schemes and loose brushwork.
Writing of the Declaration of Independence 1776
Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, born in Philadelphia in 1863 and nephew of the Moran brothers, painted Writing the Declaration of Independence 1776 in 1900 as part of a series of 78 scenes from American history. The collection The Pageant of a Nation is the largest series of American historical paintings by one artist. This collection began with Christopher Columbus’ arrival in North America, includes the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and ends with the sinking of the Lusitania that helped prompt the United States to join World War I. This painting is the 35th in the series, depicting Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia School of Design
The Philadelphia School of Design for Women was established in 1848 by Sarah Anne Worthington King Peter in her home as a means for women to develop practical skills to pursue careers deemed suitable for women. These sketches by Walter Goater appeared in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1881 and show scenes inside the school.
Inspired by the Female School of Design in London, the Philadelphia School of Design was the first and longest surviving design school for women in the United States. The school influenced the development of art not only in Philadelphia, but as a career for women, giving women a socially acceptable way of earning a wage during the nineteenth century. Many of those connected to the Moran family were listed as faculty, such as Peter Moran and Stephen James Ferris. In 1932, the design school merged with the Moore Institute of Art, Science, and Industry, creating the Moore College of Art and Design as it is known today.
