Henry_Moore

Henry Moore (1831-1895), English painter, the ninth son of William Moore, of York, and brother of Albert Joseph Moore, was born in that city on the 7th of March 1831. His artistic education was chiefly supervised by his father, but he also attended the York School of Design, and worked for a short time in the Royal Academy Schools. He first exhibited at the Academy in 1853, and was a constant contributor to its exhibitions till his death. At the outset of his career he occupied himself mostly with landscapes and paintings of animals, executed with extraordinary detail in imitation of the prevailing taste of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; but in 1857, while on a visit to the West of England, he made his first attempts as a sea-painter. His success was immediate, and it had the effect of diverting him almost entirely from landscapes. Among his most important canvases must be reckoned "The Pilot Cutter" in 1866, "The Salmon Poachers" in 1869, "The Lifeboat" in 1876, "Highland Pastures" in 1878, "The Beached Margent of the Sea" in 1880, "The Newhaven Packet" (bought by the Birmingham Corporation), and "Catspaws off the Land" (bought by the Chantrey Fund trustees); in 1885, "Mount's Bay" (bought by the Manchester Corporation) in 1886, "Nearing the Needles" in 1888, "Machrihanish Bay, Cantyre," in 1892, "Hove-to for a Pilot" in 1893, and "Glen Orchy," a landscape, in 1895. He was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1876, and a full member in 1880; an associate of the Royal Academy in 1885, and an academician in 1893; and at Paris, in 1887, where he exhibited "The Newhaven Packet" and "The Clearness after Rain," he received a grand prix and was made a knight of the Legion of Honour. He died at Margate on the 22nd of June 1895. His works are marked by admirable appreciation of nature, and by a rare understanding of wave-form and colour and of the subtleties of atmospheric effect; and as a sea-painter he may fairly be regarded as almost without a rival.