From Library Journal
This latest volume from Asleson, a Huntington Library Research associate and specialist in Victorian art, should generate some interest in a 19th-century British artist who is not as well known as his Pre-Raphaelite contemporaries. The first work on Albert Moore in 100 years, this book focuses on the artist's interaction with the Victorian art world as well as his formal pictorial concerns. Aselson demonstrates the art-for-art's-sake philosophy behind the artist's neoclassical maidens; the elaborately folded antique draperies, patterned decorative fabrics, and limited color schemes of Moore's paintings illustrate his belief in the primacy of beauty and style over subject matter in art. Aselon shows that stylistic influences in Moore's art included poses from Greek vases and sculpture, Liberty fabrics, and Moorish architecture. Also interesting and provocative is her discussion of the friendship between Moore and James McNeill Whistler and the inference that Whistler appropriated Moore's artistic theory as his own. In addition, the author looks at the politics of Victorian art institutions. This is an excellent book filled with gorgeous color reproductions. Recommended for general collections as well as libraries that support art programs.DSandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Publisher comments
Albert Moore (1841-93) was one of the most important late-Victorian artists. He employed the female figure to embody abstract systems of ideal beauty, and created many defining images of the Aesthetic Movement. This book presents a view of the artist's allegedly reclusive personality, and seeks to establish him as a major figure and a significant precursor of Modernism.
