Everett Clark Thorpe (aka Ev Thorpe)

American
(1904–1983)

Cache Valley 2000 BC
1953

Oil on board
30.25 x 38.5 x 1.75 in.
Museum Permanent Collection
1984.1886

Providence-born artist Everett Clark Thorpe is best known for his regionalist murals depicting modern Utah history, but here he explores a more distant past. Thorpe’s aquatic artwork references Lake Bonneville, which covered the area between 30,000 and 13,000 years ago. The former shores of Lake Bonneville are fossil hotspots, primarily for Pleistocene megafauna like mammoth, camelops, and bison. In contrast, the dinosaurs Thorpe includes in his scene went extinct around 66 million BCE.

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This object has the following keywords:

• animals
• Dinosaurs
• landscape
• mountains
• natural landscapes - Designates land and water areas where human effects, if present, are not ecologically significant to the area as a whole. Use to contrast with "cultural landscapes," areas which are significantly altered or modified by human actions.

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Independent & Creative Impulse: Dialogues from the Collection , 8/16/2011 - 5/9/2014
• SC Spring 25 - Utah Landscapes , 1/14/2025 - 5/9/2025