Left: A Garden, by Albert Moore, ARWS (1841-1893). 1869. Oil on canvas. 68 3/4 x 34 5/8 inches (174.6 x 87.9 cm). Collection of the Tate Britain, accession no. T03064. Image courtesy of the Tate Britain reproduced via Art UK for purposes of non-commercial academic research. Right: Study for A Garden. c.1869. Black and white chalk on brown paper. 13 15/16 X 8 inches (35.4 X 20.4 cm). Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, accession no. 41348. Image courtesy of the author. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Moore began this work in 1869 and exhibited A Garden as his sole contribution to the Royal Academy exhibition of 1870, no. 966. A. L. Baldry felt it was influenced by Moore's 1869 designs for mosaic panels for the Central Hall of the Houses of Parliament, which were unfortunately never executed. Baldry described the work as:
a study of a single figure, and in colour, arrangement, and general effect it had much in common with the mosaic designs of the year before. In all probability it was commenced about the same time as these drawings, and into it the artist put, as was his wont, the special knowledge which he had gained while carrying out the smaller and simpler designs. A Garden shows a pleasant arrangement of pale green draperies over white, with an accent of orange in the cap that partly covers the fair hair of the maiden whose graceful movement to pluck a flower is the sole incidental motive of the picture. The background is a grey wall, and the accessories form a kind of pattern of leaves and flowers, nasturtiums, and anemones, and asters, in shades of purple, blue and orange. The effect of the whole is peculiarly tender and refined, with a reticence that is much more convincing than demonstrativeness can ever be. Its gentleness is really a quality of atmosphere, a greying and harmonizing resulting rather from the brilliance of the key in which the picture is painted, than from any deliberate attempt to suppress a vigour of tone contrast. There is, too, great dignity in the easy action of the figure, and in the proportions of the body and limbs; a suggestion of perfect construction expressed through the medium of able draughtsmanship. [39-40]
The pose of the young woman in A Garden is unusual in Moore's oeuvre, since she is facing away from the viewer. It may have been influenced by the pose of the second woman in his earlier painting Apricots of 1866. Both of these, in turn, may have been influenced by a Roman wall painting entitled Spring of c.79 AD in the Museo Nazionale Naples. A number of studies exist to show how carefully Moore planned his composition. Cartoons for the figure, both nude and draped, are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (inventory no. D.250-1905). Studies of the draped figure in black chalk heightened with white are in the collections of the Hunterian Art Gallery (object no. GLAHA:42405), the National Gallery of Canada (accession no. 41348), and the Art Institute of Chicago (ref. no. 2003.251). In the drawing at the National Gallery of Canada, the pose of the figure and the outline of the drapery are very close to those in the finished painting, with the exception of the right arm. In the painting, the right arm is slightly higher up and further away from the body. The drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago may have been executed later because the draperies are closer to those found in the finished painting, as is the placement of the right arm, but it lacks the criss-cross ribbon design seen near the shoulders in the sheet at the NGC and the painting at the Tate.
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
This painting once again proved controversial when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy. F.G. Stephens, writing in The Athenaeum, was harshly critical:
From Sir E. Landseer to Mr. A. Moore is a long leap; but, if Mr. Moore chose, not necessarily a descent. This time, however, the fall is great. We regret that an artist, who last year exhibited two noble pictures, has condescended to work unworthy of himself. He is one of those to whom we referred in the first review of this series by writing that a critic cannot tell what certain young men of proved ability will send to an Exhibition. In A Garden (966), which must be styled a back-view of a young female, in green drapery, with flowers on a dead wall, there is much fine and delicate colour, but such outrageously bad drawing and so obviously profound a contempt for modelling, that we shall long wonder at the artist's weakness in thus making his own defects manifest. Had there been thought or pathos expressed, it would rightly excuse at least some portions of the folly of this work; but, beyond evincing vaguely that sense of grace with an abundance of which we have always credited the painter, the figure is pitiful in the extreme. Mr. A. Moore owes a great deal to his critics; by this childish performance, he has effectively proved them to be rash prophets. [680-81]
In The Art Journal's review of the 1870 exhibition, too, comments were mixed:
Mr. Albert Moore also supplies a full-length, life-size, on the line, in A Garden (966). The picture is, of course, an anomaly and perhaps an anachronism; in style it has no precise place in time or space: its nearest belongings would seem to be among the mural paintings of Pompeii; and yet the figure is so flat that the manner is rather that of a bas-relief, than of a picture. In colour the artist has an unaccountable liking for washed-out greens and feeble, faded tones generally. And yet the work merits respectful consideration, which indeed the hangers have given it by affording the figure so large a portion of valuable wall space. [171]
Bibliography
Asleson, Robyn. Albert Moore. London: Phaidon, 2000. 108-11.
Baldry, Alfred Lys. Albert Moore: His Life and Works. London: George Bell and Sons, 1894. 39-40.
Lanigan, Dennis T. and Schoenherr, Douglas E. A Dream of the Past. Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Movement Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings from the Lanigan Collection. Toronto: University of Toronto Art Centre, 2000, cat. 51, 151-52.
Lean, Laura. Objects of Desire. Victorian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005, cat. 7, 74.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series IX (1 June 1870): 161-72.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2221 (21 May 1870): 680-82.
Created 29 August 2026