The Teton Range

Moran painted The Teton Range in 1897, based on his travels to the Wyoming territory in the 1870s and 1890s. He was 60 years old and had been painting the American West for over three decades, producing the landscapes of Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and the Rocky Mountains that had made him one of the most famous painters in America. The Teton Range is one of his most beautiful late works, a view of the Wyoming mountains that captures their jagged peaks and their reflections in the lake below. The painting shows the Teton Range reflected in a lake, with the mountains rising sharply from the valley floor. The peaks are painted in cool blues and grays, with snow visible on the upper slopes. The lake is painted in dark, translucent layers of blue and green, with the reflections of the mountains visible on the surface. The sky is filled with soft, luminous clouds, and the light falls from the upper left, illuminating the peaks and casting the valley in a warm, golden glow. A few trees are visible at the edge of the lake, providing a sense of scale. Moran first visited the Teton Range in 1879, when he traveled to Wyoming with the geologist John Wesley Powell. He returned several times over the following decades, making sketches and watercolors that he used as the basis for paintings in his studio on Long Island. The Teton Range was one of his favorite subjects, and he painted it many times throughout his career. This version, painted in 1897, is one of the most accomplished, with the mountains and the lake described in a combination of precise drawing and loose, atmospheric brushwork. Oil on canvas, 70 by 107 centimeters. Moran painted with a combination of precise drawing and loose brushwork, building the mountains in layers of blue, gray, and white. The lake is painted in translucent strokes of dark blue and green, with the reflections of the mountains described in soft, vertical strokes. The sky is painted in thin, even layers of blue and white, with the clouds built in soft, opaque strokes. The trees at the edge of the lake are painted in small, precise strokes of dark green. The surface has the smooth, polished quality of a painting made with great care. The horizontal format and cool palette make this print work well in a living room, bedroom, or office. The blues, grays, and greens pair with white walls, natural wood, and rooms with a calm or naturalistic mood. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a serene, expansive quality that suits rooms with a contemplative or western mood. This is a public domain artwork from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed.