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1917

  • We acquired this object.

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2025

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Drawing, View from Powell's Plateau, Grand Canyon, Colorado

This is a Drawing. It was created by Thomas Moran. It is dated 1873 and we acquired it in 1917. Its medium is recto: brush and watercolor, white gouache, graphite on tan wove paper verso: graphite on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Moran’s great painting of the Grand Canyon was begun in the fall of 1873, after the artist returned from his expedition with Major John Wesley Powell. The image seen here, executed in mid-August on the spot Powell called “the greatest point of view in the Grand Canyon,” is a study for the painting purchased by Congress as a companion to Moran’s 1872 painting The Grand Chasm of the Colorado, which hung in the Senate lobby. Moran’s vantage point, at an angle to the canyon rather than a lengthwise view, allowed the viewer to sense the dizzying heights of the rock cliffs and to gauge the depths of the canyon walls.



Wall Label from exhibition, "Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape," Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, NY.

This object was donated by Thomas Moran. It is credited Gift of Thomas Moran.

Its dimensions are

19 x 27.1 cm (7 1/2 x 10 11/16in.)

It has the following markings

Recto: Stamped in ink, lower right corner: oval, Cooper-Union

It is signed

Signed and dated in graphite, lower left: T Moran / 1873

Cite this object as

Drawing, View from Powell's Plateau, Grand Canyon, Colorado; Thomas Moran (American, b. Britain, 1837–1926); USA; recto: brush and watercolor, white gouache, graphite on tan wove paper verso: graphite on paper; 19 x 27.1 cm (7 1/2 x 10 11/16in.) ; Gift of Thomas Moran; 1917-17-26

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Frederic Church, Winslow Homer & Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape.

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18189581/ |title=Drawing, View from Powell's Plateau, Grand Canyon, Colorado |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=4 July 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>