ALBERT JOSEPH MOORE, R.A.
(1841-1893)

 

Oranges

c.1885

watercolour and pencil heightened with white on paper,

37.3 x 17 cm

P.594

Probably painted just before it was first exhibited; Moore had been elected an associate of the R.W.S. the previous year. It was characteristic of Moore to name the drawings after a comparatively minor element, or in the case of Oranges the title also alludes to the overall colour scheme. Oranges is atypical of his work in that it shows a figure in motion; most of Moore’s figures are static.

Moore’s early works were strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, but from 1864 his study of sculpture formed his mature style: single Grecian figures, or groups of figures carefully posed in an elaborate design often incorporating flowers. Indeed in his early career he found it difficult to work without the stimulus of flowers in his studio. His paintings were worked up from careful studies and drawings of the figures in his works, first nude and then draped; in this he used a similar working practice to Lord LEIGHTON.

WHISTLER greatly admired his work, and for a period in the 1860s introduced classical elements into figure groups. It has also been suggested that Whistler took his idea for the Butterfly monogram from Moore’s incorporation of the Greek anthemion in his work.  

Swinburne described one of Moore’s paintings thus: 'such a painting has no reason for being except its beauty, its melody of colour and "symphony of form"’. Moore’s style reflected the concerns of the Aesthetic Movement: draped female figures with an air of detached reverie bathed in a sultry Mediterranean light.      

EJ/JM

PROVENANCE: James Barrow by 1886; with Tjhos. Agnew & Sons Ltd before 1906; Maas Gallery, from whom purchased by Gallery, May 1969 with the assistance of the V&A/M.G.C. Purchase Grant Fund.

EXHIBITIONS: Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, summer 1885, no.286; Grand Loan Exhibition of Pictures, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 1886, no.849, lent by James Barrow; Victorian Exhibition, London, Maas Gallery, 1968, no.81.   

REFERENCES: A.L. Baldry, Albert Moore, London, 1894, pp.58,84,105, repr. facing p.86; ibid., ‘Albert Moore’, Old Watercolour Society’s Club, vol.VIII, 1930-1, p.47, pl.13.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.