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The Wissahickon, a tributary of the Schuylkill River and part of the Fairmount Park system in Philadelphia, PA, was a popular subject for American landscape painters in the 19th century. Thomas Moran (1837-1926), a painter and printmaker, in the Hudson River Valley School painted this view of the Wissahickon in 1863. The Hudson River Valley School was a mid-19th century, American school focused on landscape paintings with influence from romanticism. Although best known for his paintings of western landscapes, Moran’s paintings of the Philadelphia area capture the beauty of the landscape and the changing seasons.Label Type
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Thomas Moran is best known for his monumental paintings of the American West, but he got his start in
Philadelphia, painting the scenic landscapes along the Schuylkill and its tributary the Wissahickon.
Moran’s view suggests an isolated pastoral valley. In fact, the Wissahickon bordered heavily industrialized districts and was itself lined with mills and factories until the sections of the creek were
incorporated into Fairmount Park by the 1880s.