SKU: 11424
John Moody (1906 - 1993)
The quarter seated nude in bathing costume
£595.00
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John Moody (1906 - 1993)
Signed and inscribed on reverse, Houlgate, 10 Sept 26
Oil on panel, 6 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. (16 x 22 cm.)
Size:
Height – 16cm x Width – 22cm
John Moody’s painting spree in Houlgate (Calvados Dept of Normandy) was
motivated by light. His paintings on both sides of the Channel coasts
around this time are literally filled by light – huge skies, seascapes,
white cliffs and rolling sand dunes. He was 20 in 1926 when the
Houlgate sketches were undertaken. Two years later his Knocke series, on
the Belgian coast, retain similar characteristics whilst adopting a
slightly surreal imagery.
‘Jack,’ as he was better known, took every opportunity to paint and draw
when he was young, causing his parents to wonder if he’d ever find a
way to earn any money. A letter from a family friend in December 1926
cautions him on life as an artist: “I am very interested in seeing that
you have taken up lettering and I congratulate you on your success. I
think you have done a wise and practical thing in taking up commercial
art, but it would be a pity if you did nothing else. At the start I am
afraid you can’t live on doing work that will live, but you may live on
doing work that will not live.”
By 1930 Jack, as a founder member of the New Kingston Group, was
exhibiting work around the country and in 1931 was teaching Architecture
and Perspective at the Wimbledon School of Art. Facing penury however
he enrolled as a singer at the Webber Douglas School of Singing which
was to draw him inexorably into theatre life – and eventually into the
world of opera, for which he is best remembered. He never lost his love
of painting.
We are grateful to Richard Thompson for the above catalogue note.
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After training at the Royal Academy Schools and working from a studio offered to him by Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) and Edward Bawden (1903 – 1989), by the 1930’s, Moody was exhibiting at a variety of London venues and teaching at Wimbledon School of Art; he also became a founder member of the New Kingston Group of painters. Fascinated by the Theatre he was later well known as an opera producer, commissioning stage sets from John Piper and Robert Medley.
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