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1917

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Drawing, The North Dome, Yosemite, California

This is a Drawing. It was created by Thomas Moran. It is dated 1872 and we acquired it in 1917. Its medium is brush and black wash, white gouache, graphite on tan wove paper . It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

These drawings in grisaille, or gray tones, are some of the studies for wood-engraved illustrations that accompanied E .L. Burlingame’s article “The Plains and the Sierras,” published in Picturesque America. These drawings, while executed on location, are closely related to photographs by William Henry Jackson and Carleton Watkins, who had documented the area since the 1860s. By rendering the landscape in three or four tones devoid of color, Moran translated nature into a graphic vocabulary that was adaptable to the printed page.



Wall Label from exhibition, "Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape," Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, NY.

This object was donated by Thomas Moran. It is credited Gift of Thomas Moran.

Its dimensions are

16.8 x 14 cm (6 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.)

It is signed

Signed in graphite, lower left: T. M.

It is inscribed

Inscribed in graphite, on verso: The North Domes / Washington Column / & Royal Arch / from the vernal fall stream / looking down / YoSemite Valley / TM.

Cite this object as

Drawing, The North Dome, Yosemite, California; Thomas Moran (American, b. Britain, 1837–1926); USA; brush and black wash, white gouache, graphite on tan wove paper ; 16.8 x 14 cm (6 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.); Gift of Thomas Moran; 1917-17-14

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Frederic Church, Winslow Homer & Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape.

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18189487/ |title=Drawing, The North Dome, Yosemite, California |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=7 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>