The Beryl Spring on the Road from the Lower Basin to Norris
1892
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. William Henry Holmes
Accession Number
1947.13.31
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Moran's *The Beryl Spring on the Road from the Lower Basin to Norris* (1892) captures a serene yet dramatic moment along a rugged trail in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Rendered as a precise drawing, it showcases the bubbling Beryl Spring amid the Rocky Mountains' geothermal wonders—a steaming geyser basin that highlights the park's raw, otherworldly beauty. Moran, a master of luminous landscapes associated with the Hudson River School, used his keen eye for light and texture to evoke the vastness of the American West. This artwork stems from Moran's 1892 expedition to Yellowston...
About the Artist
Thomas Moran · 1837–1926
Thomas Moran (1837–1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School whose dramatic paintings of the American West played a pivotal role in the creation of the national parks. Born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he emigrated with his family to Philadelphia as a child. He was largely self-taught, though he apprenticed briefly with a wood engraver and studied the work of J.M.W...