Los Angeles , CA-- Thomas Moran’s Mountain of the Holy Cross, Autry’s most important painting, is back on display in Romance Gallery Los Angeles, CA.

Thomas Moran’s Mountain of the Holy Cross, the artist’s ultimate statement on the West as America’s destiny, has recently returned to the Autry following a year of travels with two separate exhibitions on the impact of the Western landscape. The historic painting astounded visitors at the Yale Center for British Art from February to May 2009 as part of Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts; and at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Vancouver Art Gallery from June 2009 to January 2010 as part of Expanding Horizons: American and Canadian Paintings & Photography: 1860–1918.

John Gray , President and CEO, Autry National Center, said he's glad to have the painting back on display at the Center after sharing it with other museums as a loaned art work. Calling it the most important work in the collection, he said the museum has a duty to share it with public, not only at the Autry but also across the country and internationally, but he also is glad that it is "safe and sound".

Finished in 1875 following the artist’s third trip West, Mountain of the Holy Cross was widely exhibited in the East before coming to rest in the collection of an English physician and railroad developer, who installed it in his home near the developing resort town of Manitou , Colorado . There the painting–like the legendary site it depicts–lured tourists and travelers drawn by the notion of the Western landscape as a divine creation and the American people as a chosen nation. It was gifted to the Autry collection by Mr. and Mrs. Gene Autry in 1991. The painting is the centerpiece of our art collection. It embodies cultural thinking about the West at the time of its creation: that the West was monumental and grand, the natural destination of the American people as the heirs of the New World, according to Amy Scott, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts, Autry National Center.

Mountain of the Holy Cross was reinstalled in the Autry’s Romance Gallery on February 22, 2010. The public is encouraged to visit the Autry and welcome home one of Los Angeles ’s most famous American paintings. Image caption: Thomas Moran, Mountain of the Holy Cross, 1875, oil on canvas.

Donated by Mr. and Mrs. Gene Autry. Museum of the American West, Autry National Center .

About the Autry National Center The Autry National Center is an intercultural history center dedicated to exploring and sharing the stories, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West. Located in Griffith Park , the Autry includes the collections of the Museum of the American West, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, and the Autry Institute’s two research libraries: the Braun Research Library and the Autry Library. Exhibitions, public programs, K–12 educational services, and publications are designed to examine critical issues of society, offering insights into solutions and the contemporary human condition through the Western historical experience.

Autry National Center Museum at Griffith Park  is closed Mondays.

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