JACKSON, Wyo. — The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) announced the addition of a painting by Thomas Moran to its collection following a donation of works amassed by a private collector.
The oil painting “Mount Moran, Teton Range, Idaho,” completed in 1903, is the museum’s second piece by Moran, whose depictions of the Yellowstone landscape from the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 helped convince Congress to establish the first national park. Mount Moran in Grand Teton National Park is named for the artist. NMWA said via press release that the painting is noteworthy due to its quality and “impressive size,” measuring 40 by 30 inches.
“While we celebrate wildlife and nature from around the globe, collecting pieces with regional significance is always a priority,” NMWA Executive Director Steve Seamons said in the announcement.
The painting joins Moran’s “Eternal Snows of Mount Moran, Teton Range,” an oil painting circa 1912, in the museum’s collection, which was donated in 2022. Other notable works by Moran hang in the White House, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the Smithsonian. The museum notes that Moran’s depictions of the Tetons are “few and far between,” and the National Park Service notes that the artist only ever saw the Teton range from the western side.
The new acquisition hangs in the NMWA’s Greene Pathways Gallery. The painting was donated to the museum along with pieces by 19th-century American artists George Catlin, Seth Eastman, Alfred Jacob Miller and Frederic Remington.
Moran’s work has been highly valued by collectors. In 2020, his “Cascade Falls, Yosemite,” sold for $946,000 at a Jackson art auction, and in 2024, “Afterglow, Green River, Wyoming,” sold for over $2.2 million at a Christie’s auction.
