Photographed by Scott Wolff. Scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Salvator Rosa Sketching the Banditti

Artist Thomas Moran (American, 1837 - 1926)

CultureAmerican

Date1860

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 40 x 66 7/8 in. (101.6 x 169.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 47 x 74 in. (119.4 x 188 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated lower left: Thos Moran 1860

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2127

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 211

DescriptionOil on canvas painting of Salvator Rosa, an American artist, sketching the banditti. The group of figures are set into a landscape with a water; they are to the right of the steam, which runs through the rocky landscape.

Label TextThomas Moran American, 1837–1926 Salvator Rosa Sketching the Banditti, 1860 Oil on canvas In the cave at the center of this rocky valley, armored highway bandits hide out with their stolen treasures, as well as their captive, the Italian Old Master painter Salvator Rosa (1615–1673). According to legend, Rosa later used sketches of these fierce brigands and their wild mountain domain as the basis for his paintings. By making this tale the subject of a large exhibition picture, Thomas Moran publicly declared his ambition to follow in Rosa’s footsteps as a painter of sublime landscape scenery. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2127ProvenanceDavid & David, New York; Museum Art Exchange, 1968; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1971. Exhibition HistoryPennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Spring 1861. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Thomas Moran," National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1997 - January 11, 1998; The Thomas Gilcrease Museum, February 8 - May 10, 1998; Seattle Art Museum, June 7 - Aug 10, 1998, plate 1. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. Published ReferencesDennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 132. Nancy K. Anderson, _Thomas Moran_ exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1997, 34-35, plate 1. ISBN: 0-300-07325-9, 0-89468-225-3 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 76-77, no. 41. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6