Chama Below the Summit
Classification
landscapes
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Thomas Moran
Accession Number
1917-17-50
About this artwork
Landscape with railroad track in lower right foreground; view across ravine, with evergreen tree thicket, to Rocky Mountain range. Glimpse of train with smoke-belching engine, right of center, traversing mountain ridge.
Art Historical Context
Thomas Moran, a British-born American artist (1837–1926) renowned for his luminous landscapes of the American West, the majestic Rocky Mountains in *Chama the Summit* (1892). A leading figure in the Hudson River School tradition, Moran often depicted untamed wilderness with dramatic light and atmospheric depth, drawing from his expeditions with government surveys like those of Yellowstone. This painting, now in the Smithsonian American Art as a gift from the artist himself, showcases his skill in evoking the sublime scale of nature. In the foreground, a railroad track snakes through a ravine ...