Victor Hume Moody:
A Corner of the Artist's Studio, circa 1930
Framed (ref: 5276)
Signed
Oil on canvas board

Tags: Victor Hume Moody oil panel Highlights of 20/21 Art Fair still lifes 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Realism

Provenance: Private Collection

Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.37.

Objects in the artist’s studio frequently became the inspiration for still lives - sometimes arranged formally more often than not they were the product of chance: plain walls, animated through the play of light and shade, form a lively backdrop to the loosely pinned sketches that  adorn the wall, setting in relief the chair with its  discarded coats which  become the central focus of the composition..

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 recognisable 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.

Artist in oil, pencil and charcoal, and teacher, born in London. He studied at Battersea Polytechnic and at Royal College of Art under William Rothenstein. Became head master of Malvern School of Art, 1935-62, succeeded by his daughter, Catherine Olive Moody. Showed at RA, RP and RBSA and had a solo show at Goupil Gallery, 1939. Moody produced classical compositions and portraits. Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston, Bolton and Worcester Libraries and Worcester Cathedral hold examples. Lived in Malvern, Worcestershire. Moody was featured in The Last of the Classicists, which the Harris mounted in 1993. The theme was enlarged at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery in 203 with the installation Underpainting and The Painting Methods of V H Moody, stemming from researches made by a group including Moody's daughter Catherine.

For full information download our catalogue: 

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