Kingcups by Albert Joseph Moore, ARWS (1841-1893). Left: Oil on canvas. 15 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (39.4 x 21 cm). Collection: York Art Gallery and Museum, accession no. YORAG: 700. Reproduced via Art UK, where it is identified as being in the public domain. Right: Study for Kingcups. Coloured chalks on tracing paper. 15 x 8 inches (38.1 x 20.3 cm). Private collection, image courtesy of Sotheby’s, London. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Moore exhibited Kingcups at McLean's Gallery in London in 1884, no. 118. Like his earlier Follow My Leader of 1873, this is one of his rare works showing figures in motion. A.L. Baldry recalled how Moore captured this realistic action: "the figures jumping from the wall were drawn from a girl who for hours in succession clambered on to and jumped off a table" (84). The composition is also treated in a much more impressionistic style than usual, similar to how he treated the figure of Leader in his oil sketch for Follow My Leader. In Kingcups two young women holding hands are jumping off a walled embankment to join their companion already standing on the meadow below. All the women wear classical dress. The jumping women wear white gowns, one spotted with a dark pattern, and have long orange scarves draped around their shoulders. One has an orange silk cap while the other's cap is blue. Their companion wears an orange gown with a white overgarment. The painting is therefore very much a harmony in white, orange and green, which is reflected in the Kingcup flowers (marsh marigold) and the white daisies growing in the foreground.
An early coloured chalks study for the work shows that Moore followed his original composition quite closely.
Bibliography
Asleson, Robyn. Albert Moore. London: Phaidon, 2000. 162-63.
Baldry, Alfred Lys. Albert Moore. His Life and Works. London: George Bell and Sons, 1893. 54-55. 84.
Green, Richard. Albert Moore and his Contemporaries. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Laing Art Gallery, 1972, cat. 61, 25-26.
Highly Important Victorian Paintings & Drawings. London: Sotheby's, Belgravia (6 October 1980): lot 61.
Kingcups. Art UK. Web. 7 October 2026.
Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Ar. London: Christie's (13 December 2017): lot 2.
Created 18 May 2022
Last modified 26 August 2026