Albert Joseph Moore A.R.W.S.

Sale: Sotheby's, London, December 6, 1977, lot 64, illustrated
The Maas Gallery, London
Sale: Christie's, London, February 29, 1980, lot 82, illustrated
Fischer Fine Art, London
Peter Nahum, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

London, McLean's Gallery, 1880
Tokyo, Japan, Shigeru Aoki and Late Victorian Art, 1983, no. 78
London, Peter Nahum, Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelites and their Century, 1989, no. 123, color pl. 89

 

Alfred Lys Baldry, Albert Moore, His Life and Works, London, 1894, p. 50
Alfred Lys Baldry, Studio, September 1894, illustrated opposite p. 279

A skilled draughtsman with a thorough command of anatomy, mathematics and architecture, as well as painting, Albert Moore was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement, whose practitioners rejected the moral and narrative overtones prevalent in mid-nineteenth century art and embraced classical form and design as the means to achieving ideal beauty.  Moore’s progressive personal crusade for abstract beauty was based on the geometrical constants underlying Nature, which he expressed through the female form draped in beautiful fabrics and set within a lavishly appointed interior where color and form are harmonious and interrelated.  According to Robyn Asleson,“It was in reaction against the smoke-filled gloom of late Victorian London that Moore created an art of pure light and perfect clarity” (Robyn Asleson, Albert Moore, London, 2000, p. 149).   

 

Moore’s friendship with James McNeill Whistler reveals the lasting impact the British painter had on the American artist.  Whistler was profoundly inspired by Moore’s unflappable belief in the supreme importance of composition, as well as his sophisticated design logic.  Moore was the only painter in England who the notorious proud and ornery Whistler considered “great” (Robyn Asleson, Albert Moore, London, 2000, p. 98).  In turn, Whistler was well-known for his extensive collection of Japanese objects, which Moore visited and readily integrated into his Graeco-Roman scheme.  In addition to common sources of artistic inspiration, Whistler and Moore emulated each other in other aspects of their painting.  Both signed their paintings with a unique insignia base on the abstracted form of their superimposed initials.  They each utilized suggestive titles based on abstract concepts or small details within their paintings, rather than choosing explicit titles that forced narratives upon their work.  Moore also defended Whistler in the infamous 1877 case in which Ruskin called his painting “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s eye” and Whistler charged him with libel.

 

Moore’s distinctive technique also reflected his appreciation for classical art.  As in fresco painting, he worked only on a moist surface and omitted any areas that could not be finished within the day. Moore also experimented with color, producing monochromatic paintings to explore ranges of tone.  He studied the science of color at the School of Design at York, where the curriculum was largely inspired by Michel Eugène Chevreul’s The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors (1839). 

 

Albert Moore’s biographer, Albert Lys Baldry, records Anemones as follows:  “A small upright picture, ‘Anemones,’ an especially excellent example of mellow color and deft brushwork, also belongs to this year [1880].  It is a white and yellow study, a female figure standing in the thinnest white gauze, through which the tints of the flesh tell strongly, partly wrapped around with thicker drapery of buttercup yellow and relieved against a background of pale yellow-brown, spotted with white and yellow flowers.  The stronger accents are an orange cap, a necklace of black beads, and a rug of orange, black and grey” (Baldry, p. 60).

 

Moore’s artistic ideals are most eloquently expressed in his obituary notice of 1893: “Beauty of colour, of form, of line, of type was the chief motive of every picture he ever produced…He painted draperies because they are more beautiful than modern dress; he painted women because in their faces and figures beauty shows more plainly than in any other created thing; he painted faces without emotion because emotion distorts the features and destroys beauty of form.  His art was Greek…in its simplicity and single-mindedness.”