A Footpath

Albert Joseph Moore ARWS 1841 - 1893

Summary

Classical figure of a langorous young woman in white Grecian robes and a yellow headdress, standing in a garden surrounded by lush foliage. Her right arm leans against the trunk of a tree, her left arm holds her robe about her. She looks directly at the viewer smiling sweetly. The drapes of her robes are shown in intricate detail, and indeed are the focus of this painting. The robed female appears sculptural because of the dramatic curves and folds in her attire.

Display Label

A Footpath 1888 (formerly known as Study: Standing Figure of a Woman) Albert Joseph Moore 1841 - 93 Oil on canvas This painting may have begun as a preparatory sketch for a larger work, A River Side, exhibited in 1888. In this, three maidens in togas stand on a riverbank, the water rippling almost to their feet. A Footpath is a re-working of the right hand figure. A classically draped girl, wearing an unlikely yellow hat, stands in a tangle of green undergrowth. The spontaneous handling of the brushwork creates a sense of movement and immediacy. Moore often turned his studies into independent artworks. He perfected a purely formal approach to his painting in which figures were carefully arranged in a setting. in an effort to convey a sense of harmony and mood. His refined paintings made him a pioneer of Aestheticism, a style which became fashionable from the late 1800s, in which the expression of beauty was preferred to realism. James Thomas Blair bequest 1917.227