MOORE, John

1820 - 1902

John Moore was born at Birdell (now Theatre) Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk on 16 May 1820 and baptised at St Mary’s church on 3 February 1821, son of Martin Moore, a former sailor, and his wife Elizabeth née Warren, who married at Woodbridge St Mary Church on 31 August 1815. His father was a plumber, painter & decorator, and young John was apprenticed to the trade of plumbing & signwriting, but he spent a brief time as a cabin boy in the Merchant Navy around 1841/3. He married at Ipswich in 1843, 21-year-old Caroline Upson of Woodbridge and their son John Hordin was born at Woodbridge three months later. In 1851, John was a house painter, living in Seckford Street, Woodbridge with his wife and son and was in the same situation ten years later. By 1868, John was living at Charles Street, Ipswich, working for wood grainer & sign writer Jacob Mules in Orwell Place, but in 1871 was described as an artist, living at Ward’s Court, 6 Tower Terrace, Ipswich, which was just behind the Cornhill, with his wife Caroline and a 27-year-old son who was a basket maker. More famous as a seascape artist, but some of his woodland scenes were painted with extreme feeling for nature. An exhibitor at the Ipswich Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1868 and joined the Ipswich Fine Art Club at its formation in 1874 with his first exhibition in 1875 and in 1883 had some twenty painting on display and was a regular annual exhibitor until his death. He also exhibited at the Bury St Edmund's Fine Art Society in 1882 'Hove to for a Pilot', at the Woodbridge Art Exhibition at the Lecture Hall, Woodbridge in April 1883, six oil paintings 'Ashore', 'Ufford', 'In Stays', 'Kyson Old Quay', 'Old Woodbridge' and 'Entrance to Woodbridge' and in 1889 at the Woodbridge Fine Art Exhibition at the Assembly Room at the Bull Hotel, Woodbridge oil paintings 'Deben Backwater', 'Melton Water Mill' and 'Flood Tide on the East Coast'. He travelled in Scotland and the North on commissions for the Cobbold family of Ipswich, also painting scenes in north Norfolk and elsewhere. His 55-year-old wife Caroline died at 6 Tower Terrace, Ipswich and was buried in Ipswich cemetery on 18 January 1877 and the following year John took a second wife, 39-year-old Harriet Kersey (1838-1900) whom he married at Woodbridge on 2 October 1878 when he is described as an architect. In 1881, living at Tower Ditches, Ipswich with his Ipswich born wife Harriet but 1884-1894 was living at 21 St George’s Street, Ipswich. His second wife Harriet died at 21 St George's Street on 1 April 1900, aged 62, and was buried in Ipswich cemetery on 5 April 1900, when John went to live at the home of his friend George Scolding (1847-1916) at Mere Street, Diss, Norfolk where he died on 8 April 1902, aged 82 and buried in Ipswich cemetery. Three of his oil paintings were on show at the Ipswich Art Club centenary exhibition in 1974 'Sunset', 'Sailing Ships' and 'Fishing Boats of the East Coast'.

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Works by This Artist