Details

Object type

painting

Title

Reading Aloud

Artist/Maker

Albert Joseph Moore artist

Culture/School

English; British

Date

1884

Materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

framed: 1385 x 2365 mm x 81000 g; unframed: 1073 mm x 2057 mm

Description

This type of painting appealed greatly to the Victorians' love of 'historical costume genre'. During this period there was also a revival of interest in the classical art of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Although Moore may have based the poses of his figures on sculptures from the Parthenon, he was not really interested in providing an archaeological reconstruction. His aim was to create an overall decorative harmony of colour and shape.

Reading Aloud was gifted to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museums by Andrew Thompson Reid. Reid was born on 17 July 1863 in Glasgow, his father was the locomotive engineer James Reid. The family had returned to Scotland in 1863, when James became manager of the Glasgow locomotive manufacturer Neilson & Co. In 1893 four of his sons joined the firm as partners, including Andrew. On the death of his father in 1894, Andrew's brother Hugh became senior partner of the firm. In 1903 the firm merged with two others to form the North British Locomotive Company, of which Hugh became Deputy Chairman and Chief Managing Director. When Hugh died in 1935, Andrew took over the business.

Andrew never married. He collected art and published a catalogue of his pictures. He lived with his brother and sister at 6 Woodside Terrace, Glasgow and latterly at Auchterarder House in Perthshire, where he kept a famous herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, and 6 Sydenham Road, Glasgow. He died in Glasgow on 16 September 1940.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by Andrew T Reid, 1908

ID Number

1218

Location

Kelvingrove Stairs