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Edward Moran 1823 - 1901 "Fisher Girl" Oil on canvas 28 x 23 inches |
Edward
Moran was an American painter of marine and historical subjects. He was
born in England in 1823. He came to the United States with his family
in 1844. In 1899 he completed a series of 13 paintings illustrating epochs
in the maritime history of America from the landing of Leif Ericson to
the return of Admiral Dewey’s fleet from the Philippines in 1899 (Pennsylvania
Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia). Edward, the oldest of the artistic
Moran brothers, was acknowledged as the impetus behind the family’s entry
into the art world. "He taught the rest of us Morans all we know about
art," stated his famous younger brother Thomas. During a long and
successful career, Edward Moran became a member of the Philadelphia Academy
of the
Fine Arts and an Associate of the National Academy of Design. The first
twenty-seven years of his artistic career were spent in Philadelphia,
where he studied painting with the marine painter James Hamilton and
with the landscapist Paul Weber.
Seascapes were Moran’s forte. By the 1880’s the artist was considered such an expert on the subject that his "hints for practical study" of marine painting were published in the September and November, 1888, issues of the Art Amateur. After his death, an admirer wrote that "As a painter of the sea in its many moods and phases, Edward Moran...had no superior in America."