Red Rock Trail 

Thomas Moran’s ‘Red Rock Trail’ is rendered in oil paint, a medium that, by the late 19th century, had become synonymous with the ambitions of landscape art. Moran's technique, rooted in the traditions of European painting, captures the vastness and majesty of the American West. Look closely and you can see how he applies thin layers of paint to achieve a luminous quality, especially in the sky. The brushstrokes blend seamlessly, giving the rocks and distant landscape a soft, almost dreamlike appearance. Yet, this very technique – the blending of pigment with oil, and its application on canvas – speaks to a wider history of industrialization and material culture. Oil paint, once painstakingly produced by hand, became a mass-manufactured product, available to artists to create images that often depicted the very landscapes being transformed by industrial expansion and colonial expansion. The painting's smooth surface belies a history of material extraction, production, and labor, reminding us that even the most ‘natural’ of landscapes are inevitably mediated by human intervention. By looking at the materials and their histories, we can better understand the complex relationship between art, industry, and the changing face of the American West.