拍品專文
Although his reputation has subsequently been eclipsed by that of his brother Albert Joseph Moore, in the 1880s and 1890s Henry Moore was regarded as one of England's most important artists, with his works being shown widely across Europe. Whilst his landscapes and rural scenes show signs of Pre-Raphaelite influence, he is best known for the marine pictures which he started painting in 1857. According to Christopher Wood: 'Moore was one of the first painters to try and observe accurately the movement and moods of the sea' (Dictionary of British Art, vol. IV, part 1, Victorian Painters, 1995, p. 361). A similar interest in cloudscape can be seen to pervade his landscapes, for as the Art Journal said of the present work in 1870, 'The sky is once again made a main part of the picture: the sun, contending with massive clouds, glances through silvery greys down upon the earth. The picture is tender in colourless harmonies; the painter seems afraid of breaking the tone by one touch of decision or intensity.' The writer concluded that the picture 'is worthy of attention as the work by which Mr H. Moore would this year wish to be judged', while F.G. Stephens described it in the Athenaeum as 'exquisitely like Nature'.