BENSON BOND MOORE (Washington, DC/Florida, 1882-1974). THE RAPIDS, ROCK CREEK, WASHINGTON, DC, signed lower right and titled on verso, circa 1920. Oil on canvas - Framed, 18 1/2 in. x 20 in. Estimate $30,000-50,000
Literature: Illustrated in full color at p. 365, as Plate 1.359 Vol. I, Art Across America, by Professor William Gerdts. It is very significant and impressive that Moore was selected by Professor Gerdts as 1 of 21 Washington D.C. artists out of in excess of 2,000 artists that were active in the past two centuries in Washington, D.C., for inclusion in this book. In effect, Gerdts designated Moore as 1 of 21 of the finest Washington, D.C. artists in the past two centuries. At pp. 364-365 of Volume I of Art Across America, Professor Gerdts observed:
A more complete and orthodox Impressionism was practiced by Benson Bond Moore, one of the few artists discussed here who was actually born in the city of Washington. Like Rolle he studied with Messer and Brooke at the Corcoran School and also with Max Weyl. Moore was a painter, a teacher, a painting conservator, and a prodigious etcher; he also illustrated nature books, magazines, and, for twelve years Nature's Children, a column for the Washington Star. His landscape work, most of it painted in the Washington area, is probably as close to orthodox Impressionism as a Washington artist ever got. The Washington landscape painters who emerged in the 1910's, such as Rolle, Moore and [William Posey] Silva, were devoted to the local landscape, as is apparent in Moore' Rock Creek view. The modern landscape coterie coalesced in the Landscape Club of Washington, a very active society that was organized in 1913. Rolle was the president for most of the Club's first two decades, and his admiration for Redfield is clearly indicated by Redfield's membership, the only non-Washington artist so included (Emphasis and bold added).'
Note 1) See Mr. Fastov's below discussion regarding why he believes that 'The Rapids, Rock Creek, c. 1920' is a Moore tour de force of American Impressionism and, in fact, is superior as an Impressionist work to any Moore painting that has been offered at auction and is listed and illustrated in Askart.com. The purchaser of this painting will be given a copy of Vol. I, Art Across America, by Professor William Gerdts, which, as noted above, this painting is illustrated in full color at p. 365, as Plate 1.359. To see Mr. Fastov's extended introductory essay that he solely prepared, without assistance/supervision from Sloans & Kenyon, specifically for this auction of a large collection of beautiful Impressionist landscapes by Benson Bond Moore (Washington, DC/Florida, 1882-1974) click here to view supplemental information for this lot. Such essay contains Moore's biographical information and an extensive analysis of why Moore is properly regarded as the second leading Washington, DC Impressionist landscape painter of the early 20th century. This is predicated initially on the fact that Moore and August Herman Olson Rolle (Washington, DC 1875-1941) were the 2 DC artists and 2 of only 12 Southern Impressionists selected by Professor William Gerdts, for inclusion in his very popular, scholarly, well-written, trailblazing book American Impressionism, published in 1984, which is still in print and selling well, and Moore's classical American Impressionist style, up through c. 1925 and his post c. 1925 evolution into a truly unique form of Impressionism, not practiced by any other American artist, in which almost all of the Moore works being offered at auction by Sloans and Kenyon were painted. Mr. Fastov discusses both Moore's first and second phases Impressionism, focusing primarily on the characteristics of the second phase of Moore's oeuvre. This phase is characterized by Moore's painting in the thinnest layers of paint, with virtually no impasto; diluting his primary pigments with light colored paints, not the white paint favored by classical Impressionists; and his depiction of anthropomorphic trees, sometimes in truly spectacular fashion, in his landscapes, which was inspired by the prints of 16th century printmakers, like Albrecht Durer, which is readily understandable, as Moore was also an excellent, classically trained printmaker, and his prints also depict trees in this manner. Mr. Fastov discusses how Moore spent his life up to c. 1950, focusing almost exclusively on the Potomac River Valley, the Washington, DC area, but started painting all over the South, including Florida, to which he moved from DC to Sarasota, Florida. Finally, Mr. Fastov discusses the economic value of Moore's art .
