Details of Sculptor

Surname

Moore

Alternative Surname

First Name

John Francis

Initial of Surname

M

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

- 1809

Biographical Details

Moore is remarkable for his fashionable use of colour at a time when monochrome memorials were considered the acme of good taste. He was born in Hanover and came to England about 1760, where he became a member of the Free Society of Artists. He exhibited with them, as ‘James Moore’, every year from 1766-76, giving as his address, Berners Street, London. Moore showed a variety of sculpture including models in clay and works in marble, designs for monuments, low reliefs (including some for chimneypieces), animals, portrait busts and statues and, in 1769, a statue of Apollo (38). In 1766 he presented to the Society of Arts a marble relief entitled Britannia reviver of Antique and prompter to modern Arts (72). Thanks were returned by letter. On 6 January 1769 ‘Francis More ‘in Berner Street, Oxford Road’, won the Society of Arts silver palette for unspecified accomplishments (RSA Minutes, 1767-68, seq 3 f 11). Among his earliest known commissions were several chimneypieces for Audley End, Essex, supplied in 1763. For one with Doric columns, after a design by Robert Adam he was paid the large sum of £111 14s 3d in January 1764 (60).
His most valued patron was probably Alderman William Beckford (1709-70), the builder of Fonthill Splendens. Moore supplied several elaborate polychrome chimneypieces for the house, including one flanked by female figures for the banqueting hall (56) and another with piping fauns for the music room (58). A third, for the saloon (57), was seen in Moore’s studio in 1765 by a French visitor, P T Grosley, who described it as ‘remarkable on account of its high finishing … All the most remarkable deaths in the Iliad were presented … the figures protuberant and almost starting from the marble … intermixed with figures in basso-relievo representing the deaths of less consequence’ (A Tour to London, 1772, 69). In 1765 Moore exhibited a marble statue at the Free Society, of Beckford in the livery of the Lord Mayor of London, delivering a speech (37). Gunnis described it as ‘a dramatic essay in baroque which gives ample proof of the sculptor’s talents’ (Gunnis 1968, 263). When Beckford died in 1770 the City of London held a competition for a monument to be set up in Guildhall, for which they set aside £1,000. Among the 17 competitors were Agostino Carlini and Nathaniel Smith, but it seems that through influence Moore had already been chosen as the sculptor (39). The statue is a variant of the earlier figure and was priced at £1,300. It depicts Beckford delivering the impromptu remonstrance he had made in May 1770 which confused and angered King George III. Below are seated figures representing Trade and Navigation. J T Smith called it ‘a glaring specimen of marble spoiled’ (J T Smith II, 1828, 204).
Moore was responsible for a number of wall monuments with sarcophagi carrying figural roundel-reliefs, often with a Christian theme (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 19, 25, 27, 30). Among his more ambitious memorials is the tribute to Field-Marshal Lord Ligonier, 1773, in Westminster Abbey, which has a figure of Britannia surrounded by martial trophies and a portrait medallion (10). The Ferrers memorial at Ettington has a stiff, reclining figure of George Shirley, the patron, flanked by more successful standing images of Lord and Lady Ferrers in 17th-century dress (12). A later work, raised at North Stoneham in 1781, commemorates Admiral Hawke with a spirited relief of his last victory at Quiberon Bay (16). Generally the figures on the monuments lack animation and the draperies are unconvincing, but the formal sculpture is well executed and he made good use of coloured marbles. Nineteen surviving drawings for monuments in the Victoria and Albert Museum would doubtless have attracted potential patrons by their good draughtsmanship and clear bright colouring.
A number of portrait busts by Moore were shown with the Free Society, most of them now lost. His head of the 2nd Earl of Bessborough, which is probably the ‘bust of a Nobleman’ exhibited at the Free Society in 1775 and at the Royal Academy in 1776, is now at Spencer House (50). For the sentimental Dr Thomas Wilson, Rector of St Stephen Walbrook, London, Moore provided a statue of his adored lodger, the blue-stocking, Catherine Macaulay, in the character of History (15). It was unveiled in that church on 8 September 1777, but without permission from the churchwardens, who had it removed since the inscription gave offence to the parishioners.
The sculptor had several children, one of whom, John (or James) Moore II became a sculptor and assisted his father. Together they signed the monument to Jonas Hanway (†1786) in Westminster Abbey, which has a relief of Britannia clothing boys, mounted on a sarcophagus (26). Shortly after, the son appears to have died and Moore took as a partner the unidentified ‘J Smith’, whose signature is on some late monuments (31-4). One of his pupils was James Calvert.
He died on 21 January 1809, at York Buildings, New Road, St Marylebone, London. Moore was clearly a man of substance for in his will, dated 21 November 1805, he left his wife, Barbara, his chattels and £100 ‘for her immediate sustenance’ plus an annuity of £570. Everything else was to be sold for the benefit of his son and three unmarried daughters. Two houses in Welbeck Street, London, were left in trust for the daughters’ benefit.P T Grosley, the French visitor to Moore's workshop, considered Moore and Joseph Wilton to be the leading statuaries of the day (Grosley 2, 1772, 67). The shortage of modern commentators on Moore’s work denies this judgement, but he was certainly a skilful sculptor, particularly when working in relief, and his use of polychrome work brought him a steady flow of customers.
IR
Literary References: Graves 1907, 171-3; Gunnis 1968, 236-4; Physick 1969, 17n, 37, 130-3, 140, 141; Penny 1977 (1), passim; Whinney 1988, 315-6, 465 n 25; Hardy 1989, 40-2; ODNB (JKB)
Archival References: Audley End Archives, 1763-4
Collections of Drawings: 19, for monuments, including one for the Rev Harvey Spragg, 4910 VAM 4910, pen and ink and watercolour
Will: PROB 11/1491/371-2, proved 24 Jan 1809