Sopra la cascata inferiore, Yellowstone
1892
Thomas Moran was the artist whose breathtaking paintings basically convinced Congress to turn Yellowstone into America's first national park, and this sketch offers a rare peek into his creative process. Dated July 1892, it's a field study for the Lower Falls, complete with handwritten color notes like 'Pink' and 'Yellow' scattered across the rocky cliffs—essentially a paint-by-numbers guide for his future masterpiece. Instead of a polished final piece, we get to see the raw, energetic lines of an artist capturing the wild grandeur of the American West in real-time, reminding us that even the most iconic landscapes start as messy scribbles on a notepad.
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