me thoroughly well-informed and an interesting
conversationalist. He was of a most generous nature, and was not only
ever ready to assist young artists with advice and material aid as well,
but also, when the occasion arose, to devote the fruit of his labors to
any meritorious charitable object. Thus, for example, in March, 1871, he
exhibited in Philadelphia seventy-five of his landscapes and marines,
all of which he used in illustrating a beautiful catalogue entitled
"Land and Sea," and not only gave the entire profits of this exhibition
and of the sale of the catalogue, but also the price obtained for one of
his important paintings, entitled "The Relief Ship Entering Havre," to
aid the sufferers of the Franco-Prussian war.

He did not reach the culminating point of excellence in his work in
middle life or shortly thereafter, like so many other painters, but on
the contrary grew in breadth and power with advancing years, so that the
Thirteen Historical Paintings, described in this little book, although
he gave them the finishing touches only shortly before his death,
constitute his greatest achievement.

About the year 1872 Mr. Moran sought a still wider field for his
activities in removing from Philadelphia to the City of New York, where
for thirty years he was a conspicuous and admired figure in metropolitan
life, and in his studios, surrounded by all the luxury and comfort that
prosperity could suggest, he and his talented and hospitable wife drew
around them a circle of artists, authors, musicians and notable men of
all classes, among whom may be mentioned actors like Joseph Jefferson,
F. F. Mackay (both pupils of Mr. Moran) and Charles W. Couldock, writers
like Richard Watson Gilder and John Clark Ridpath, lawyers like Col.
Edward C. James and Robert Ingersoll, art connoisseurs like Samuel P.
Avery and William Schaus, sculptors like Frederic A. Bartholdi and James
W. A. Macdonald, and of course a host of artists such as Edwin Abbey,
Albert Bierstadt, Edwin H. Blashfield, John C. Brown, Thomas B. Craig,
Hamilton Hamilton, Constant Meyer, Paul de Longpre, Henry W. Ranger,
Vasili Vereschagin and Napoleon Sarony.

It may be added that Mrs. Moran's maiden name was Annette Parmentier,
and that she was a Southern girl of French descent from the noted
scientist Antoine Augustin Parmentier, who was the first to introduce
the potato into France, for which he was decorated by Louis XVI as a
public benefactor, and honored b