驼鹿穿过莫兰山下的池塘，怀俄明州大提顿国家公园 Moose crossing a pond below Mount Moran, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (© Jim Stamates/Minden Pictures)

驼鹿穿过莫兰山下的池塘，怀俄明州大提顿国家公园 Moose crossing a pond below Mount Moran, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (© Jim Stamates/Minden Pictures)

Through an artist's eyes

If this beautiful view of Grand Teton National Park seems as pretty as a painting, there may be a reason for it. That majestic peak towering over the landscape is Mount Moran, named for Thomas Moran, an American artist of New York's Hudson River School who earned fame by painting scenes of the western frontier. In 1871, Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson were invited on an expedition to the Yellowstone region to accompany a team from the US Geological Society while they conducted the first comprehensive survey of the area. Moran's paintings and Jackson's photographs from the trip immediately captured the public's attention and inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872.

For the next two decades, Moran painted hundreds of landscapes of the Yellowstone region, producing indelible images of this spectacular wilderness that would come to define the American West in the imaginations of many. The area had such an impact on Moran that he adopted the signature T-Y-M, Thomas 'Yellowstone' Moran. He returned to the area in August 1879 on an expedition to the Teton range, just south of Yellowstone National Park. He never made it as far into the mountains as he'd hoped, but gazing up at the towering peaks, he wrote in his diary, 'From this point it is perhaps the finest pictorial range in the United States or even N. America.' Judging from this image, it's hard to argue with him.

透过艺术家的眼睛

如果大提顿国家公园的美景看起来像一幅画一样美丽，那可能是有原因的。这座巍峨的山峰是摩兰山，以纽约哈德逊河学校的美国艺术家托马斯·莫兰的名字命名，他以画西部边疆而闻名。1871年，莫兰和摄影师威廉·亨利·杰克逊应邀到黄石地区探险，陪同美国地质学会的一个小组对该地区进行第一次全面调查。莫兰的画作和杰克逊旅行中的照片立即引起了公众的注意，并在1872年激励国会将黄石公园建成第一个国家公园。

在接下来的20年里，莫兰绘制了黄石地区的数百幅风景画，为这片壮观的荒野绘制了不可磨灭的图像，这些图像将在许多人的想象中成为美国西部的定义。这个地区对莫兰的影响如此之大，以至于他采用了标志性的T-Y-M，托马斯“黄石”莫兰。他于1879年8月返回该地区，前往黄石国家公园以南的提顿山脉探险。他从来没有像他所希望的那样深入山区，但他在日记中写道，仰望巍峨的山峰，从这一点上看，它可能是美国乃至北美最好的画作。从这个形象来看，很难和他争辩。