English-born artist Edward Moran is known for his Romantic seascapes and marine paintings, boasting the premier and exclusive underwater panorama of 19th-century American art, The Valley of the Sea (1862.) Moran immigrated to the United States in 1844, settling in Maryland among eleven siblings and later departing for Philadelphia, where he worked in a cotton factory and began to sketch and paint. Moran established a studio and became a student of landscapist Paul Weber and marine painter James Hamilton, and later returned to England to continue his artistic training. In England, Moran was inspired by J.M.W. Turner’s seascapes, along with the Dutch paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries. His seascapes, unrivaled in their excellence, were speculated to have been inspired by the 1858 installment of the first telegraph cable and the underwater exploration required for such pursuits.