Towards the end of the ’30s Moody's career was gathering momentum and in 1939 he was given a one person exhibition at the Goupil Gallery which featured most of the important compositions as well as a group portrait commissioned for the Malvern Literary Festival. Individual sitters included George Bernard Shaw, J.B. Priestley and Ernest Thesiger.

In 1940 Moody’s painting simply titled ‘Nude’, also known as ‘The Bellini Nude’ (Cat. 5), was initially hung on the line at the R.A. but was later re-hung in another part of the building when the gallery suffered bomb damage. At this time ‘Youth is Nimble’ was missing somewhere in France having been sent to the Paris Salon for the 1939 exhibition, only to be returned after the war. 

The approaching war also had a more direct effect on his work, prompting Moody to paint a small number of unusually topical subjects. ‘The End Of Summer’ and ‘Europa and the Powers’, both bought by Lord Fairhaven from the Royal Academy, and ‘The Return of the Hunting Goddess’  all make veiled reference to the approaching conflict and the eventual restoration of peace.