Watercolour on paper

Signed and dated

Presented by the Friends of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, 1997

The Subject

The subject of this watercolour by Henry Moore is one which had already been a real favourite with artists for over a hundred years by the time this was painted. Artists' approaches to the subject greatly changed during that period. Many of the earlier artists were particularly impressed by the history of the building. Somewhat later, artists were interested in the romance which they saw surrounding its history and present ruinous state. For Moore the history of the castle was of lesser importance. In this watercolour the castle appears as a surface, a shape, an area or volume, looming out of the twilight. In this it is similar to Monet's images of the Houses of Parliament in fog and Rouen cathedral in changing conditions of light. Like those works this is an Impressionist picture, although an English rather than a French one.

The Artist

The artist is not to be confused with the modern sculptor of the same name! This Henry Moore was born in York in 1831, one of thirteen children born to a portrait and landscape painter, William Moore. One older brother was Albert Moore whose paintings of langorous classical maidens hang in England's top art galleries. Henry studied at the York School of Design and then at the Royal Academy Schools in London.

His early landscapes and rural scenes were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. In direct contrast to what happened in France, as Henry Moore's work became progressively more Impressionist, he himself became quite quickly more and more well-received and internationally successful. This may partly be because he painted in what still appeared to be a highly-finished manner, at least in his larger oil paintings. By contrast, the apparently slick surface of his large oils is one reason for his lack of appeal to sophisticated audiences today.

The Place of Henry Moore in Art

Impressionism is not generally seen as particularly English, and indeed the founders of the group were not English.

Best known among English Impressionists is Lucien Pissarro, son of Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro. Lucien came to work permanently in England only in 1890, becoming a British citizen in 1916. Steer was an English Impressionist late in the century, while Sickert was an English Impressionist from the 1890s, before developing his own approach.

Whistler worked in England earlier, from 1860, and he was friendly with Manet and Degas. However, he is always seen very much as American and not English. Also he is regarded as not really an Impressionist but rather a star of the Aesthetic movement.

If we search for an early true English Impressionist, then Henry Moore, the painter of this watercolour, is the genuine thing. In fact this watercolour, dating from 1878, comes just five years after Monet's 'Impression, Sunrise', the painting which gave Impressionism its name.

This painting is indeed quite properly an impression. It is something which gives the mood and lighting and the effect at a glance, but which does not tell us much, for instance, about the castle as a construction. Another aspect which qualifies Henry Moore as an Impressionist is his practice of closely observing the actual visual appearance of his scenes.

Henry Moore also is of importance for having sought to abolish the subject in art, something for which he has not been sufficiantly recognised. From around 1878, the time of this watercolour, Moore devoted himself almost exclusively to painting the sea. No boat or other 'subject' was allowed into the scene. His abolition of the subject is strongly brought to attention in his obituary in The Times in 1895. The fall of light on the sea always in his later work was the true content of the work.

Other works by the artist in the collection of The Herbert

The Herbert also holds a large oil painting by the artist, 'The Silver Streak', 1881. This shows a view out across an empty sea. In the distance a ray of sunlight has made its way through the clouds and has reached the sea, forming the silver streak. Like Henry Moore's 'Kenilworth Castle', this oil painting is about changing effects and the fall of light.