Lot 94: ALBERT JOSEPH MOORE A.R.W.S.

ALBERT JOSEPH MOORE A.R.W.S. BRITISH 1841-1893 STUDY OF A STANDING WOMAN pastel on paper laid down on card 11 1/2 by 5 1/2 in. 29.2 by 13.9 cm

The Fine Art Society, Ltd., London (in October 1972)

The pastel appears to date from circa 1868-73. The classically idealized head, which clearly owes more to sculptural models than an actual human face, recalls Moore's treatment of the heads in his earliest classicizing pictures, such as The Marble Seat (1865), The Elements (1866), and A Greek Play for the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre (1868). In other respects, the pastel resembles slightly later works. The arrangement of drapery, for example, is very similar to that in the painting Shuttlecock, which Moore began in 1868 and completed in 1870. The pastel's outdoor backdrop may have been inspired by studies Moore carried out in the early 1870s for the picture that ultimately became Shells (1874), which he first situated in a wooded setting by the water's edge. A very similar backdrop appears in a pastel study for Shells (c.1873, Fogg Art Museum, Boston). It is of comparable size (12 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.) but left in a far sketchier state of execution. In the present work, the absence of Moore's characteristic anthemion signature and the addition of a sketched-in frame possibly indicate that the pastel remained with the artist as a working design for an unrealized picture.