Description
Etching of a polo player galloping toward the viewer, eyes focused on the ground, one hand holding the reins, the other with mallet raised, about to strike. The print conveys the energy and intensity of the game, as sharp linear strokes convey movement and dust kicked up from the field by the horse. This print is signed and titled by the artist and is also numbered M16339 with a number 30 in the bottom margin to the right of the title.
Carton Moore-Park was an artist who worked primarily in painting, etching and printmaking, best known for his animal, portrait and genre subjects. He was also an illustrator and writer. Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Moore-Park studied for two years at the Glasgow School of Art. He also painted portraits, one of which is in the collection of England’s National Portrait Gallery. A gifted draftsman, he began by applying his childhood love of animals and outdoor sports as a muralist and illustrator. By the age of 25, Moore-Park had moved to London and had published two well received children’s books: Alphabet of Animals (1898) and Book of Birds (1900), in a style influenced by Japanese wood engravings. His nationality is variously given in art historical reference works as Canadian, British or American, but he spent most of his life — 46 years — in New York City, where he moved in 1910. There he soon became associated with an art collective called the “Carlton Illustrators,” whose members included Vernon Howe Bailey, Remington Schuyler and Louis Fancher among others, and who all rented space in a penthouse studio that was built on the top of the Flatiron Building, apparently at Bailey’s instigation.
Condition: A rich impression, generally very good overall. Recently professionally cleaned and deacidified and laid on Japanese tissue to restore short tear upper middle center margin, extending slightly into blank sky. Slight shadow toning at this repaired tear from former restoration, now removed.
References:
Alexiou, Alice Sparberg. The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City that Arose with It. New York: Macmillan, 2010. pp. 201-202.
Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 110. Online at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=05C02RhJZCkC&pg=RA1-PA110 (11 March 2014).
Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. France: Librairie Gründ, 1966. Vol. 6, p. 201.
Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1985. p. 428.
Hiatt, Charles “The Work of Carton Moore Park.” The International Studio. Vol. 12 1901. pp. 171-176. Online at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=NUxaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA171 (11 March 2014).
