"The Rainbow" by Thomas Moran

East Hampton - Perhaps because it's never been open to the public, the Thomas Moran House, the shingle-style home and studio of one of America's most significant landscape painters that sits out of view, recessed from the road on a slight rise, across from Town Pond, has, until now, attracted relatively little attention. But with the deeding of the house by Guild Hall to the Thomas Moran Trust on Oct. 25, the property, a national landmark since 1966 and a private residence before being acquired by Guild Hall, will come into its own, after restoration, as a significant historical presence on Eastern Long Island, reportedly the first artist's residence-cum-working studio in the Hamptons.

Though the house itself, built in 1884, is cause for admiration, a fine example, even in disrepair, of late 19th century American Queen Anne style - turret, towering chimney, gables and all - its main attraction is as the living and working quarters of noted artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926), who for 42 years made 229 Main Street in East Hampton his summer home. What wonderful irony. Moran is perhaps best known for his gorgeous, tonal, Turneresque landscapes of the West (many executed in his East Hampton studio), panoramic paintings that have been cited as the major incentive for Congress's establishment in 1916 of the National Park System. He, a man who took to signing his work TYM, Y for "Yellowstone," will now be better appreciated as a landscape artist who also enshrined East Hampton, its bucolic fields and mist-shrouded ocean and bays prompting some of Moran's most beautiful work - elegant, Constable-like, perfectly composed oils, atmospheric water colors, and delicate prints.

Never mind that Moran, associated with the Hudson River School, when not also being invoked for the Rocky Mountain School, was born in Lancashire, England, lived for a while in Pennsylvania, traveled around the world, had a home in New York City and died in California. And never mind that two western sites are named for him - Mount Moran in the Grand Tetons and Moran Point in Yosemite. Moran is, arguably, East Hampton's premiere plein air artist who, when he wasn't working in his studio, would join family and friends on the front lawn to put on costumed tableaux vivant. He was also known to glide around Hook Pond in a gondola (said to have been Browning's) that he brought back from Venice. Although it was a Thomas Moran landscape of Wyoming this past May at Christie's that broke the auction record for 19th century American painting previously held by Sargent, Moran's oils, watercolors, pencil field sketches, and etchings of East Hampton, Amagansett, and Montauk - evocations of an idealized Nature - continue to have extensive appeal in an art market largely identified with abstract, multimedia, and edge.

"A Midsummer Day, East Hampton, Long Island" by Thomas Moran

His house, however, was not just about him. The talented Moran family included his groundbreaking printmaker wife, Mary Nimmo Moran (1842-1889) and Moran's brothers, Edward (1829-1901) and Peter (1841-1914), and nephew John Leon (1864-1941), whose works are exhibited on the East End from time to time. The Moran mausoleum in East Hampton's South End Cemetery may not be as intricate as Lion Gardiner's but it's bigger.

Thomas Moran was a major, influential presence in East Hampton. His studio-home was a gathering place for all manner of artists and literary personalities. Honoring that spirit, The Thomas Moran Trust, under the leadership of its chairman and president, Peter Wolf, has set its sights not only on restoring and managing the newly acquired house and garden, but on developing, with Guild Hall, programs that would build on the Moran heritage. Potential plans being considered include establishing the house as a museum, artists' residence or educational center for scholars, educators and emerging local artists. In any case, the acquisition is a first step in ensuring that the house will be restored and become an integral part of community history.

The shape and direction of the new enterprise will, of course, depend on many factors, but Guild Hall's Executive Director Ruth Appelhof expresses an "awesome" regard for the possibilities, particularly as these might enhance existing programs in East End schools. Having young resident artists give lectures and master classes, she notes, was of special importance to Elizabeth Lamb who once owned the property. "Ideally," says Applehof, "Guild Hall would like to work with the trust on advancing all the arts, as these are consonant with the Moran heritage. On the garden side, alone, an infinite number of cooperative initiatives in conjunction with horticultural and environment organizations suggest themselves."

Not incidentally, Guild Hall owns 23 Thomas Moran's - oils, watercolors, and etchings, many of these scenes of local areas that the artist executed over a 50-year period, from 1871 to 1920. One, a joyous oil, "A Midsummer Day, East Hampton" (1903), in which a distant windmill pulls the eye to the mid-canvas horizon line, is making its way across the country, as part of Guild Hall's traveling exhibit, "An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection." Of course, one hopes that when the house is finally open to the public, Guild Hall might exhibit many of its Moran family treasures.

Two years before his death, spending an increasing amount of time in Santa Barbara because of its warmer clime, Moran was quoted as saying that he "still goes east each autumn." He had traveled and painted far and wide, but his two "most favorite spots on earth," remained the Grand Canyon and East Hampton.

"Seaport Town" by Thomas Moran