THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)
Ryan Peak (3,570 m - 11,714 ft)
United States of America (Idaho)
In Peak Idaho, rocky mountain, oil on canvas, 1890
The mountain
Ryan Peak (3,570 m - 11,714 ft) is the highest peak in the Boulder Mountains of Idaho. Located in Custer County, Ryan Peak is about 0.5 miles (800 m) north of the Blaine County border. The peak is also on the border of Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Salmon-Challis National Forest and partially within the Hemingway–Boulders Wilderness. Ryan Peak is the second highest peak in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, after Castle Peak as well as the 16th highest peak in Idaho. Kent Peak, which is the second highest peak in the Boulder Mountains is about 0.75 miles (1,210 m) southeast of Ryan Peak. The primary route to Ryan Peak begins north of Ketchum along Idaho State Highway 75 at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters. Take national forest road 146 north from the headquarters until you reach the trailhead at the end of the road. Trail 115 ascends the ridge to the southwest of Ryan Peak, and from the ridge Ryan Peak is about a 1 mile (1,600 m) off trail hike from the ridge.
The painter
Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.
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.
Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection with The Three Tetons painted in 1895.