Victor Moody’s distinctive voice has yet to find a large, enthusiastic and

appreciative public. He is not alone. He is in good company with other

British artists from the period, whose work is strikingly recognizable and

yet at the same time almost permanently out of vogue: Robert Weir Allen,

Harry Morley, William Strang, Charles Sims, Charles Shannon, Ambrose

McEvoy, Stanley Lewis, Albert Victor Wood. All displayed remarkable

technical skill - grounded in a profound and thorough training in draughtsmanship,

combined with acutely observed narratives. They are infused

with humour and idiosyncrasy. While the skill might be beyond dispute,

the subject matter and composition can make the work inaccessible to

a modern day audience. There is a sense of melodrama, a distortion of

beauty, a heightening of colour which unsettles. Most viewers are drawn

to conclude, sometimes reluctantly, more often readily, that the work produced

by such artists does not merit serious consideration. But what today

is seen, at best, as an enchanted backwater, might well be understood by

future generations to represent a more mainstream current of the art of its

day. The inherent quality of their work and the originality of their vision

begs a reassessment of their individual and collective place in twentieth

century British Art.

Moody worked in the Renaissance manner  building his oil paintings through pencil studies from life which he would later incorporate into his finished compositions.