Hayden, Thomas and Moran, Ferdinand | Stunning chromolithographs of Yellowstone and the West

Hayden, Thomas and Moran, Ferdinand

The Yellowstone National Park, and the Mountain Regions of Portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. Boston: L. Prang and Company, 1876.

Folio (355 x 200 mm). 14 of 15 fine chromolithographed plates by Louis Prang after the paintings of Thomas Moran, with text and 2 lithographed maps. One plate with small abrasions, two cleanly detached from mounts, mounts generally toned, occasionally foxed and one with worn corners, text and maps foxed as often found, but plates vibrant, lacking the description for The Great Falls of Snake River, Idaho Territory. In publisher's portfolio. Sold as a collection of plates, not subject to return.

Stunning chromolithographs of Yellowstone and the West.

After seeing examples of Moran's work, Hayden invited him on the 1871 geological survey of Yellowstone. The result was an astounding collection of paintings, one of which was purchased by Congress in 1872 for $10,000. These depictions helped illustrate the unique and majestic nature of the area, smoothing the way for Yellowstone to become the first National Park the following year. Louis Prang's collection of Moran's work in the present edition was produced utilizing as many as fifty-six layers of carefully registered lithographic stones to create an extraordinary depth of color. According to Bennett, "hand work could never give the effect of perspective and distance achieved in the towering scenes reproduced here."

This suite of 14 vibrant chromolithographed plates, comprises: Gardiners River Hot Springs * The Great Blue Spring of the Lower Geyser Basin * The Castle Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin * The Lower Yellowstone Range * Yellowstone Lake * Tower Falls and Sulphur Mountain * The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone * The towers of Tower Falls * The Mountain of the Holy Cross, Colorado * The Mosquito Trail, Rocky Mountains of Colorado * The Summit of the Sierras * The Great Falls of Snake River, Idaho Territory * Valley of the Bubbling Waters, southern Utah * The Great Salt Lake of Utah. Only the Head of Yellowstone River plate is lacking.

Moran and Hayden's masterpiece left an indelible impression on the American imagination, a vision of the West both bold and unique. As Kinsey notes, Prang's deep and vibrant reproductions of Moran's work was in many ways the origin of a lasting vision of the American West, as well as the "finest example of chromolithography ever produced" (Kinsey, Thomas Moran's West: Chromolithography, High Art, and Popular Taste, Lawrence, KS, 2006).

Included in the portfolio is a presentation leaf printed in gilt to the German writer and women's rights activist Hedwig Henrich Wilhelmi. The portfolio was evidently a gift on the occasion of her first lecture tour in the United States. It reads, "Frau Hedwig Henrich Wilhelmi | zur freudlichen Grinnerung | an ihre Vortragsreise in | Amerika | 1887-1889 | Boston, dan 13 März | Der Boston Turnverein."

REFERENCE

Bennett, p 80; Graff 1830; Howes H-338; Reese Stamped with a National Character 99.