Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/345

 lowed by another at Croxteth Park, Lancashire. He spent the winter of 1862-3 in Rome, and in the latter year executed a wall painting in the kitchen of Combe Abbey for the Earl of Craven. In 1864 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a group in fresco, entitled 'The Seasons,' which attracted notice from the graceful pose of the limbs in the figures, and the delicate folds of the draperies. In 1865 Moore exhibited at the Royal Academy 'The Marble Seat, the first of a long series of purely decorative pictures, with which his name will always be associated. Henceforth he devoted himself entirely to this class of painting, and every picture was the result of a carefully thought out and elaborated harmony in pose and colour, having as its basis the human form, studied in the true Hellenic spirit. The chief charm of Moore's pictures lay in the delicate low tones of the diaphanous, tissue-like garments in which the figures were draped. The names attached to the pictures were generally suggested by the completed work, and rarely represented any preconceived idea in the artist's mind. Among them were such titles as 'A Painter's Tribute to Music,' 'Shells,' 'The Reader,' 'Dreamers,' 'Battledore,' Shuttlecock,' 'Azaleas,' &c. In so limited a sphere of art Moore found his admirers among the few true connoisseurs of art rather than among the general public. His pictures were frequently sold off the easel before completion, but it was not till late in his life that he obtained what maybe called direct patronage. He executed other important decorative works, like 'The Last Supper' and some paintings for a church at Rochdale, the hall at Claremont, the proscenium of the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre, and a frieze of peacocks for Mr. Lehmann. Moore was of an independent disposition, and relied solely on his own judgment in matters both social and artistic. His somewhat outspoken views proved a bar to his admission into the ranks of the Royal Academy, for which he was many years a candidate, and where his works were long a chief source of attraction. Though suffering from a painful and incurable illness Moore worked up to the last, completing by sheer courage and determination an important picture just before his death, which occurred on 25 Sept. 1893, at 2 Spenser Street, Victoria Street, Westminster. He was buried at Highgate cemetery. His last picture, 'The Loves of the Seasons and the Winds,' is one of his most elaborate and painstaking works ; it was painted for Mr. McCulloch, and Moore wrote three stanzas of verse to explain the title. His work is now represented in many important public collections, such as those of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and elsewhere. An exhibition of his works was held at the Grafton Gallery, London, in 1894.  MOORE, ANN (fl. 1813), 'the fasting-woman of Tutbury,' born on 31 Oct. 1761 at Rosliston, Derbyshire, was the daughter of a day-labourer named Pegg. In 1788 she inveigled into marriage a farm servant, James Moore, who soon deserted her, but while her good looks lasted Ann found no difficulty in obtaining occupation, and became the mother of a large family. About 1800 she made her way to Tutbury, and endeavoured to find honest employment. Reduced to dire poverty, she subsisted on the minimum amount of food necessary to support a human being, and the astonishment created locally by her long fasts doubtless encouraged her to undertake the imposture which made her notorious. It was given out that she had lost all desire for food from November 1806. Six months later the interest taken in her in the neighbourhood was sufficient to warrant her in taking permanently to her bed. On 20 May 1807 it was reported that she attempted to swallow a piece of biscuit, but the effort was followed by great pain and vomiting of blood. 'The last food she ever took was a few black currants, on 17 July 1807,' and in August 'she gradually diminished her liquids.' Details were multiplied in the pamphlets which narrated her case. One learned writer proved that she lived on air, another that the phenomenon was due to disease of the oesophagus, while a third was convinced that her condition was a manifestation of the supernatural power of God. Joanna Southcott declared that the advent of the fasting-woman presaged a three years' famine in France. In the meantime the local doctors had taken the matter up. By two of these, Robert Taylor and John Allen (both of whom made communications on the subject of the case to the 'Medical Journal,' November and December 1808), an investigation was set on foot in September 1808, and a succession of four hours' watches, undertaken by the chief inhabitants of the district, was arranged to cover a period of sixteen days. Bulletins were posted from time to time in Tutbury, to record progress, and a list of the watchers was published. At the commencement of the ordeal Mrs. Moore was described as terribly worn and emaciated, but as it progressed she sensibly improved in health and spirits. The 