Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, he was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, Moran was appointed the chief illustrator of the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape. Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group. His vision of the Western landscape was critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park.