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The Golden Hour

Primary (Bolton, England, 1837–Santa Barbara, California, 1926)
NationalityAmerican, North America
Date1875
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 16 1/2 × 20 5/8 × 3 in. (41.9 × 52.4 × 7.6 cm)
Sight: 9 1/2 × 13 11/16 in. (24.2 × 34.7 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Bequest of C.R. Smith, 1991.42
Collection AreaArt of the United States
Object number1991.42
On View
On view
Locations
  • exhibition  BMA, Gallery, B1 - Odom Gallery
Label Text
Thomas Moran’s romanticized view of the towering cliffs of the Green River in southwestern Wyoming is notable for the operatic power of its imagery, despite the picture’s modest scale. An impossibly fiery sunset suffuses the jagged outcroppings in a golden light that exaggerates the glories and grandeur of nature. Americans back east were eager to discover the uninhabited western landscape through paintings like this and through reproductions. To make an even more compelling picture, Moran took certain liberties with features of the undeniably spectacular landscapes he observed on his trips to Wyoming during the summers of 1871 and 1872. Loosely and impressionistically painted, The Golden Hour is neither a major nor a typical work by Moran, but its magical intensity successfully communicates the artist’s deep fondness for the first western site he ever sketched.
Exhibitions
View of Long Island
Thomas Moran
1893
Mt. of the Holy Cross, Colorado
Thomas Hill
circa 1884
Indians of the Northwest
Thomas Hill
circa 1874
Yosemite
Thomas Hill
1887
Attributed to Thomas Pollock Anshutz
not dated
Venice
Thomas Moran
1901
The Opera Singer
Thomas Eakins
circa 1892
This image is for study only, and may not accurately represent the object’s true color or scale…
Thomas Ball
1856