2025 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction15 / 24 • View Catalog •
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Coast of Monterey, California will be included in Stephen Good and Phyllis Braff’s forthcoming Thomas Moran Catalogue Raisonné.
Moran historian Phyllis Braff writes, “In 1920, as he neared the end of a long career, Thomas Moran was turning enthusiastically towards reinterpreting his favorite themes and to applying updated technical skills that derived from new tastes in art. He was now synthesizing and generalizing as he reconsidered scenic concepts such as the Monterey coast, one of the California motifs he regarded as particularly inspirational. Rather than specifically describing landscape details – a goal he believed necessary in his earlier work – he prioritized bringing poetic suggestion to shrubs, trees, rocks and rising land mass areas. Colors are softer and seem filled with their own inner illumination. Shadow hues are especially rich. He also believed that a relatively large format, as in Coast of Monterey, California, was best suited to bring the viewer into physical engagement with the inventive, dramatic tonal qualities. His softening and blending of visual details became so accomplished that some finished works could almost be interchangeable in terms of precise locale. Generating an emotional response rather than providing descriptive information became primary.
“To further his subjective goals, Moran created a visual and emotional experience by using his delicately modulated color symbolically: suggesting darkness, stormy conditions or danger with deep hues at the lowest portions of the clouds, and a calm, otherworldly serenity with radiant, glowing hues in higher portions. A warm, mystically alluring infinite distance is achieved through the intensity of tonal modulations. These echo in the soft clouds above. The powerful effect is a reminder of Moran’s success at creating distance through pigment modulation – one of the pillars of his reputation.
“While the intention here is to build generalized effects, the mixed vegetation is recognizable as being in character with the Monterey coast. Moran had admired and sketched details of the area while visiting in early 1912 (the Gilcrease Collection has a sketch dated February 16, 1912). The striking combination of natural elements made a strong impression, evidenced by his revisiting the theme in paintings executed over the following decade. During this era he was observing a fairly set travel pattern: after closing the Long Island studio in late fall, he traveled west to visit the Grand Canyon and California, eventually returning to New York in spring and Long Island in summer. He seems to have enjoyed his absorption in California topics, placing special focus on the potential resonance he saw in coastal themes. They serve as a vehicle summarizing his technical achievements and his thoughts about successfully communicating a mood.”
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Massachusetts
Skinner, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, 2015
Private collection, Wyoming
