The origin of these prints has been little known, but they were produced as a free gift for subscribers to an art periodical called THE ALDINE, published by James Sutton & Company of New York. The "Cliffs of Green River" print is identified on the verso as the "Aldine Chromo for 1874." The journal touted the gift thusly: "Every subscriber to The Aldine for the year 1874 will receive a pair of chromos. The original pictures were painted in oil for the publishers of The Aldine by Thomas Moran ... The subjects were chosen to represent 'The East' and 'The West.' One is a view in the White Mountains, New Hampshire; the other gives the Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming Territory. The difference in the nature of the scenes themselves is a pleasing contrast, and affords a good display of the artist's scope and coloring. The chromos are each worked from thirty distinct plates, and are in size and appearance exact facsimiles of the originals." In the same notice to Aldine subscribers, Moran is quoted as approving of the work, writing that "I am delighted with the proofs in color of your chromos. They are wonderfully successful representations by mechanical processes of the original paintings" (both quoted in Kinsey). Records show that Moran apparently planned a "North" view as well for the Aldine series, showing a Lake Superior scene, but this was never published
Description:
On label on verso: " ... the scene of Mr. Moran's picture is laid in the heart of the Great American Desert Directon on the line of the Union Pacifc Railroad. Its colors as seen in nature have been faithfully rendered by Mr. Moran, and are characteristic of the country, here nature seems to delight in novel effects. Notwithstanding its brilliancy, it is highly artistic in form and color, and not at all exaggerated."
Print shows a group of eight men on a flat boat navigating down river. One man stands on a platform and dances to music played ̣̣̣̀by a fidler on his left and another on his right playing a cooking pan as a frame drum; others watch. One man, at right, looks out to the viewer. In the lower margin is the seal of the American Art-Union
Alternative Title:
Jolly flatboatmen
Description:
BEIN BrSides Zc20 847bi: Mounted on paper. and "Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1847 by the American Art Union in the clerk's office of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New-York."
