A SEASONAL VIEW
THE LANDSCAPES OF BENSON BOND MOORE September 1 - October 27, 1996 Washington County Museum of Fine Arts Hagerstown, MarylandBenson Bond Moore was a true native of the Mid-Atlantic region. Born in Washington, D.C., he lived there for 70 years but regarded the surrounding countryside as his neighborhood. He covered many a mile of it, usually on foot, during his painting forays.
In his youth, the D.C. area suburbs were outlying villages, surrounded by largely undeveloped countryside and crisscrossed with streams. Moore did not have to go very far from downtown Washington to find himself amid woods and fields. He and his artist friends spent many happy hours climbing through underbrush and fording streams, and always sketching, in their rambles.
Moore’s lifelong love affair with nature is evident in his landscapes and in his many works depicting animal life. He devoted his life to capturing the beauties of the natural world; one wonders if he wasn’t dismayed by the encroaching development that he viewed even during his lifetime.
A LIFE DEVOTED TO ART AND NATURE
Benson Bond Moore was born in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 13, 1882, the first child of John Benson and Caroline Moore, and one of six children. His mother died when he was seven, and his father later remarried.
He grew up in the art world, learning the trade of framing and restoration from his father, whom he assisted from an early age. John Benson Moore came from Pennsylvania during the Grant administration to start his framing and restoration business. Known as the "picture man to Presidents," [Ref 1] he served White House occupants and other Washington dignitaries until he retired, well into his eighties. He also "...owned an art gallery in Washington for many years where exhibitions by many noted artists were held," [Ref 2] noted Moore in a letter written in 1970.
A contemporary newspaper reported that Benson Bond Moore was self-taught. However, Moore’s own curriculum vitae states that he studied at the Linthicum Institute and at the Corcoran School of Art under Edmund C. Messer, Richard Norris Brooke, and Max Weyl, teachers who were part of the late 19th century Washington Landscape School. This was a conservative group, influenced by the French Barbizon painters, whose members included, in addition to the above, William Henry Holmes and James Henry Moser. This first generation of Washington landscape painters "...recorded the fast-fading Arcadian beauties of the Capital, especially about Rock Creek and the Potomac." [Ref 3] Moore and his colleagues, the second generation of Washington landscape artists, continued the landscape tradition but with a lighter and more impressionistic touch.
In 1902 Benson Bond Moore was employed as an artist with the Maurice Joyce Photo-Engraving Company in Washington, D.C. One of the highlights of this early employment was his work with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, to whose home he was sent over a period of more than a year to make drawings of technical aids for the deaf. Looking back nearly 70 years later, Moore remembered vividly his first encounter with Bell, who greeted the young artist in his bathrobe and nightcap. Bell offered him an enormous cigar and made him feel right at home. Moore did other drawing assignments, for Dr. Emile Berliner, inventor of the graphophone, and for the Smithsonian. He also taught etching privately and in the art school of the sculptor Clara Hill.
A turning point in his career was certainly the cold November day in 1914 when he met Charles H. Seaton, Winfield Scott Clime, and Edwin G. Cassedy. These three Washington, D.C., artists were the founding members of the informal group known as "The Ramblers Sketch Club." It was on one of the trio’s rambles in northwest D.C., on Foxhall Road, that they ran into Moore, who also habitually wandered the rural countryside. Seaton described the encounter in his introductory entry in the Logbook of The Ramblers, the informal history of the group:
"a dapper young fellow carrying a small sketching case and a camp stool crawls through the fence and approaches. For who may this be? He looks at the half-finished sketches. "Very creditable, very creditable." (The jollier!) Then we have a look at his work. I make mental note of the fact that he has made one sketch this cold morning and yet is ready for another after a mile walk. Here’s the right spirit! Introductions are in order.
"We go out often. Perhaps you will join us next Sunday." He would and he did, and he has ever since. Thus became affiliated Benson Bond Moore. The trio became a quartette." [Ref 4]
Seaton noted in the margin next to this narrative, "Benson ‘Birdseye’ Moore walks right into the trap." [Ref 5]
These four Ramblers were later joined by others, including August H. O. Rolle, Edgar Nye, and Henry Hobart Nichols, Jr. The members of The Ramblers were not yet established artists in those early years. They were mostly government employees who spent their Sundays and holidays tramping through the as yet undeveloped natural surroundings of the nation’s capital, painting whenever free time allowed.
The motto of the group was "Nulla Dies Sine Linea," (Not a Day Without a Line) and their Log-Book describes a jolly but dedicated group of men sketching at every opportunity. Seven members of the group, including Moore, contributed essays to the Log-Book describing various day trips in the Washington area from April to July 1917. During these four months in 1917, they made trips -- often by trolley car and then on foot -- to Four Mile Run in Virginia, to Georgetown and Kensington, Maryland, and to Seaton’s house in the country in Glen Carlyn (in Arlington County). They walked up Marlboro Pike in Maryland, which is described as a "sylvan labyrinth," and they sketched cows near the Aqueduct Bridge in Georgetown. An April outing to Falls Church found them in a village, where "churches abound on every hand." [Ref 6]
They critiqued each others’ work, and they undoubtedly influenced each other. A number of them, like Moore, employed various modifications of Impressionism. They talked of other artists: several members headed off one day to see John Carlson’s exhibit at the Corcoran and, at another time, Moore’s work was compared to Gardner Symon’s. The common bond was the love of the landscape and their art.
The Ramblers evolved in 1920 into the respected Washington Landscape Club, which then included such senior members of the Washington art community as director of the National Gallery of Art William Henry Holmes, Delancey Gill, Lucien Whiting Powell, and sculptor Henry Kirk Bush-Brown.
These early years of tramping through the woods and fields left an indelible impression on Moore; he spent the rest of his life painting, and sometimes, repainting the scenes of the region.
In the teens and twenties, Moore exhibited regularly with the Society of Washington Artists, the Washington Water Color Club, The Landscape Club of Washington, and other regional arts groups. Virtually all of his exhibited works were depictions of nature.
During his artistic career, Moore was a member of more than 40 arts organizations in the U.S. and Europe. He was particularly active in the Washington area groups. He repeatedly served on committees at the Society of Washington Artists: the Executive Committee, the Jury of Selection, and the Catalogue Committee. He won numerous prizes in exhibitions in Washington and elsewhere, including, several times, the most popular painting award, in exhibitions at the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the National Museum of American Art) in Washington, D.C.
His work was noted repeatedly in reviews of local exhibitions in The Washington Post, The Evening Star, and other local papers. An unidentified reviewer, commenting on a Landscape Club exhibition, noted, "The work of Benson Moore always has a great vogue in this city and he has two very interesting paintings in this exhibition." [Ref 7] Another reporter, Felix Schwarz, reviewing a Landscape Club exhibition, remarked, "At last Benson B. Moore has forsaken his perennial snow scenes, and painted a canvas glowing with summerly early morning light -- depicting cows going to pasture." [Ref 8]
There were a number of individual shows during his lifetime, including a one-man show in 1924 of his works on paper at Lowdermilk’s on F Street in D.C.. Shortly after, he and August Rolle were featured in a two-man show at Venable’s Gallery on H Street. Other one-man shows later in his life were held in such varied locations as Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ontario. In March 1940, a for The Evening Star wrote about an exhibition of 45 of Moore’s watercolors and etchings at the Women’s City Club: "All in all, this is a delightful little exhibition, and the prices listed are absurdly small." [Ref 9]
A highlight of Moore’s artistic career was the 1928 one-man show at the Corcoran of his etchings, drypoints, and lithographs. This was followed later that year by a major entry in the Corcoran’s Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings. This work, "White Pelicans After a Bath" (unlocated) is reproduced in the 1928 Corcoran exhibition catalogue.
He met many famous people during his years in Washington. Among these was Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover for whom he made a watercolor in 1930 of an early print of the White House. "She also purchased a number of dry etchings, one of which she presented to the then King of Siam," [Ref 10] Moore noted in his 1970 letter.
Moore was a founding member of The Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington, D.C., which held its inaugural exhibition in December 1931 at the Corcoran. He exhibited numerous etchings, aquatints, and drypoints in these exhibitions over the next twenty years. These works, many of animals, demonstrate exceptional attention to detail and the same devotion to nature that is found in his oils.
From childhood on, he made sketches of animals, often at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. In later years, he put this skill to good use when he did over 3,700 illustrations of animals during a twelve-year period in the 1930’s and 1940’s for The Evening Star’s series entitled "Nature’s Children." He also did work for the Smithsonian, including over 50 small paintings of birds, and seven paintings of comets that were reproduced in the "Scientific Series" of the Smithsonian. He also produced an uncharacteristic work for the Smithsonian that he describes as "...a large painting of the expedition of the Spaniards in their search for the Seven Cities of Cibula (sic)." [Ref 11]
At one period in his life, Moore did portraits of pets for prominent Washingtonians, perhaps when times were hard and the public was less inclined to buy more expensive landscapes. There is certainly a dearth of landscape works in his exhibit records during the 1930’s and 1940’s, and few oils and water colors have been found dating from this period.
The 1940’s found him busy restoring paintings, probably taking over his father’s work, and apparently too busy to do much painting. A 1949 Evening Star article on Moore noted that he began to devote most of his time to restoration "...about 12 years ago. Now he rarely has time to do any originals of his own." [Ref 12]
Moore did a substantial amount of restoration work, according to his resume: 107 paintings for Trinity College in Washington, D.C.; ten paintings for the Portuguese Legation; 13 paintings of Speakers of the House of Representatives; nine paintings in Mount Vernon, Virginia; and "The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" by Thomas Moran (now in the National Museum of American Art). He also restored "The Discovery of the Mississippi" by William H. Powell and "Embarkation of the Pilgrims" by Robert Weir, both in the Rotunda of the Capitol. During the restoration of the latter, he was photographed by The Evening Star as he worked on the 12’ x 18 ‘ canvas laid on the floor of the Capitol, surrounded by curious tourists. He also did restoration work in 1945 on John Vanderlyn’s "Landing of Columbus," after the painting fell from its frame in the Rotunda.
During his early years in Washington, Moore lived at two different addresses on R Street NE. In the 1940’s he moved to Monroe Street NE where he had a studio behind his home. In the early 1950’s, after his wife Flossie died, he moved to Sarasota, Florida, with his brother and sister-in-law. He painted occasional Florida scenes, but he returned for visits to the Washington area and resumed painting the landscape scenes he loved.
His sister-in-law Mary took care of Benson in his later years as his eyesight faded.
He described her in his 1970 letter as "...an indispensible (sic) helper with the printing, listing and distributing of my etchings and paintings, as she drives her own car and takes me to the various galleries in Sarasota and nearby cities that handle my work." [Ref 13]
Moore was always well respected and liked within the artistic community. He devoted his career to nature and to a conservative style that varied over the years, but he never strayed into the radical changes in the art world that spanned his lifetime. He once commented on abstract art to a reporter: "I don’t like to get into arguments, so let’s just say it’s O.K. for those who like it, but it’s not for me." [Ref 14]
He painted up to almost the very end of his long life, even as he was going blind. He died in Sarasota, Florida, on November 1, 1974.
PICTURING THE MID-ATLANTIC AREA
During his long life Benson Bond Moore devoted most of his prodigious output to depicting the natural world. The vast majority of his works are scenes of nature, principally landscapes or animal studies. His paintings, frequently labeled as to location but only occasionally dated, show a wide range of locales in the Mid-Atlantic area, with occasional scenes elsewhere along the Atlantic seaboard.
There is a simplicity and serenity about his landscapes. The scenes are bucolic and pastoral rather than wild -- open views of fields, often bisected by a stream or road, or a foreground of rocks and trees with the ever-present water. There is no conflict or drama in his works, just a peaceful solitude. These are not majestic scenes with dramatic lighting but quiet views of nature, rather like the man himself. Most of his oils and watercolors are small (14" x 18" or 16" x 20") or medium (20" x 24" or 25" x 30") in size. The largest known landscape is 38" x 40", hardly monumental.
Moore’s view of nature in his landscapes was, for the most part, uncluttered by humans. Even though he must have seen the signs of development encroaching on his rural haunts, with few exceptions he painted the scenes with only the hint of people and animals implied in the fields that are typical of his landscapes. Only occasionally does a road, foot path or bridge suggest a human presence. The trees become the focal point of many of his works, particularly in his later works of the 1950’s, in which they take on an anthropomorphic character, almost as if they were standing for portraits.
If he were alive today, Benson Bond Moore could still see some of the scenes he painted, certainly in Rock Creek Park; but he would have to travel considerably farther than he did in the teens and twenties to see the open countryside outside of the Washington, D.C. suburban sprawl. Many other natural areas he portrayed are unrecognizable today, having disappeared with the spread of development.
An occasional work, particularly etchings, shows a familiar Washington scene in the background -- the Capitol, Georgetown, or the Washington Monument. Among the many Washington, D.C., area locations that he depicted are the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress, Key Bridge, Gallaudet College, the Cosmos Club, Haines Point, Great Falls, Anacostia, Lafayette Park, the National Arboretum, and two of his favorites, Rock Creek and Foxall (as it was originally spelled).
Moore’s painting trips frequently took him to sites in the Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania countryside. He also known to have traveled and painted in North Carolina and New England. A dated North Carolina painting, "Mt. Mitchell, N.C., 6684 ft.," places him in that state in 1954 and another, at South Hill, N.C., in 1952. He was a member of the Rockport Art Association in 1923 and may have traveled there at that time. Exhibition records in 1940 list works titled with Cape Ann area locations, suggesting he may have gone back to New England, but few of these scenes have come to light.
Among the known locations of his works in the Virginia and Maryland area are Pimmit Run, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Arlington Cemetery, Skyline Drive, Luray, the Occoquan River, the Chesapeake Bay, Great Falls, Kensington, Emmitsburg, Sugarloaf Mountain, Frederick, Bladensburg, and Solomon’s Island. Depictions of Pennsylvania include Bedford and the Alleghenies. And there are many other scenes represented in his works which are not specifically identified as to location, with vague titles such as "The Valley" or "Maryland Stream.’
While most of Moore’s landscapes in oil are devoid of animals, this is in sharp contrast to the hundreds of portraits he did of animals and birds in etchings, drawings, and other works on paper. One of his major works, in fact, was the large oil on canvas, "White Pelicans After a Bath." His skill and devotion to wildlife art earned him an honorary membership in the Society of Animal Artists in New York.
There are only two works in the present exhibition featuring animals: "Cattle by a Stream" (Figure 3) and the watercolor "Mallards, Morning." Humans are only rarely present, most notably in the small D.C. waterfront paintings from 1915 and 1916 and in the watercolor "Canal Road in Winter."
Moore’s earliest landscape paintings show the influence of the Barbizon style of his teachers at the Corcoran. These landscapes are often atmospheric or tonalist and lack the bright color of his later paintings. Yet other early works, such as the small oil sketches of the Washington waterfront from the mid-teens, are bright, realistic depictions of Washingtonians at work.
He turned to an impressionistic style in the 1920’s, producing some of his best works. William Gerdts singled out Benson Bond Moore in Art Across America noting that "His landscape work, most of it painted in the Washington area, is probably as close to orthodox Impressionism as a Washington artist ever got." [Ref 15]
There are three key impressionistic works, with striking similarities, from this stylistic period: "On the Upper Potomac," dated 1924, "March Landscape," (Figure 4) dated March 23, 1923, and his largest known landscape, "Springtime," (Figure 1) possibly depicting a scene in Rock Creek Park. Although this last work is undated and the title is descriptive (rather than being inscribed on the back as with many of Moore’s paintings), it appears to date from the same period.
These three works depart from the more conventional compositional features of many of his other works with their foreground screen of vine-laden trees, somewhat suggestive of paintings by Daniel Garber. There is no known direct contact between the two artists, although Garber did serve on the Jury of Awards for the 1925 exhibit of the Society of Washington Artists. Several other impressionistic works, including "Cornfield, Fox Hall, D.C.," with its unusually heavy impasto, and "Autumn Hillside, Maryland," may also date from this period.
Moore painted all of the seasons, but winter scenes seemed to be his favorite, particularly the "marbled" (a term he used in several titles) effect of snow melting oj the landscape. He seems in general to have preferred the cooler seasons. Even his spring pictures rarely show profusion of growth, but concentrate instead on the starkness of bare trees and the vivid color of new leaves and buds. Few of his summer pictures exist. One of the exceptions is "Old Road, Near Brookland, D.C.," dated June 19, 1915. Another possible summer scene is "Cattle by a Stream," (Figure 3) which appears to be the same scene as "Near Sunset, Rock Creek," (Figure 6) dated Dec. 26, 1929.
Moore’s palette brightened considerably in the 1920’s. Even his winter scenes have a brighter look when compared to such early works as his tonalist winter scene from 1917, "Winter Landscape." By the 1950’s, his palette had become a colorful mix of russets, golds, greens, and deep blue skies. By this time, Moore’s style had changed from impressionistic to a more hard-edged, distinctive, bold, and somewhat formulaic look.
Moore exhibited hundreds of his art works, principally with the Washington area arts groups. In the early years, he concentrated on landscapes. In 1919, he exhibited 32 works at the Washington Landscape Club exhibit. He was also very active in the Society of Washington Artists in the early years, exhibiting several paintings each year at the exhibitions held at the Corcoran. In the 1930’s, however, he exhibited fewer landscapes or, in some years, none at all. Instead he focused his attention on the Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington, D.C. He exhibited many works -- including drypoints, etchings, and aquatints -- throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s.
It is difficult to match up Moore’s paintings with specific exhibition entries, since most exhibition records list only titles and do not indicate sizes and medium. It is particularly difficult in the case of Benson Bond Moore because of the general nature of many of the titles he gave to his works. In some cases, to complicate matters, he wrote more than one title on the back of a painting. However, the present exhibition has one definite exhibition work, "Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C., " exhibited in 1925 at the Society of Washington Artists. The stylistic similarities between this work and "Upper Rock Creek in Winter" strongly suggest that this painting was also done in the 1920’s.
An undated Landscape Club label, with the title "Beeches," is found on "Beeches, Rock Creek Park." Landscape Club exhibition records show a work in the 1919 exhibition entitled "In the Beech Woods," and another in 1942 entitled "Beeches in Autumn." The heavy impasto suggests the earlier date.
While the actual numbers may vary somewhat, existing records show an astonishing quantity of works produced by Benson Bond Moore. An exhibition brochure indicates, for example, that, in addition to the 3700 illustrations for "Nature’s Children," he did 212 drawings for the American Book Company’s Along Nature’s Trails in 1936. He also etched 811 plates of birds, animals, and landscapes, and painted over 1,000 paintings. [Ref 16] Whatever the number, Moore’s work is an impressive record of dedication to his art and to nature.
Benson Bond Moore left a legacy of thousands of works of art, many found in public and private collections in the Mid-Atlantic area. A tribute to him in a posthumous exhibition catalogue described him as "truly humble, genuinely modest, totally unpretentious...a gentle, gentle, Gentleman." [Ref 17] His many landscapes reflect this quiet man’s extraordinary love of nature and the often unsung beauties of the national capital area.
Special thanks go to the lenders to this show for their willingness to share their works of art and their knowledge concerning the art and the artist. A separate listing of the watercolors and oil paintings in the exhibition is available.
REFERENCES