Albert Moore

Leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement, who used the classically draped female figure as a vehicle for exploring abstract pictorial concerns. Essentially self-taught, Moore was deeply influenced by his study of Greek and Japanese art. Together with his friend James McNeill Whistler, whom he met around 1865, he experimented with a progressive new approach to painting, excluding conventional subject matter and emotion in order to concentrate on the arrangement of line, form, and color. His unconventional art, outspoken opinions, and disregard for social proprieties offended the sensibilities of many of his colleagues, who actively prevented his election to the Royal Academy, although his paintings regularly appeared there. From 1877 Moore's delicately colored and gracefully composed pictures figured among the principal attractions of the newly founded Grosvenor Gallery.

[Great British Paintings Label Text]