Benson Bond Moore, Great White Heron. Oil on board, 14 by 18 inches, signed lower right.
Benson Bond Moore was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and lived there for seventy years until his retirement to Sarasota. A nationally known artist Moore’s etchings of birds were compared to Audubon’s and his small landscapes to Corot. He is represented in the permanent collections of the White House, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institute, and the New York Public Library. Moore was raised in the art world learning painting and art restoration from his father. In 1902 his first job as an artist was with the Joyce Photo Engraving Company in Washington, D. C. Moore taught etching privately and in the art school of sculptor Clara Hill. He, Charles Seaton, Winfield Cume, and Edwin Cassidy, were founding members of The Ramblers Sketch Club, a group of Washington painters who roamed the countryside, painting and critiquing each other’s work. The club evolved into the Washington Landscape Club. Moore did thousands of illustrations of wild life for newspapers and many paintings for the Smithsonian.
In the early 1950’s after the death of his wife, Moore moved to Sarasota where he continued to paint until his death at the age of 92 in 1974. His obituary appeared in the November 3, 1974 Washington Star-News, “Benson B. Moore, 91, whose oil painting restorations hang in the Capitol Rotunda, died Tuesday at his home in Sarasota, Fla., after a heart attack. He moved from his home on Monroe Street NE to Sarasota after retiring in 1964. A native Washingtonian, Moore studied at the Corcoran School of Art and was known for his oil paintings and etchings. Many of his own works, which often dealt with bird and animal life, now hang in the National Geographic Society, Library of Congress, White House, Smithsonian Institution and Los Angeles Museum of Art. In addition to being represented in other permanent art collections throughout the United States and Europe, Moore’s work was included in exhibitions in Washington, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Sarasota and Canada. In the late 1930’s, Moore became involved in the art restoration trade his father, who had framed and reconditioned White House paintings since the Grant administration, conducted for 60 years. The art restoration field gradually evolved into a full time pursuit with Moore repainting and touching up originals by artists including Rembrandt, Velasquez, Gainsborough and VanDyke. Although most of his clients-private collectors, galleries, institutions and government departments, brought their originals to his District home studio, Moore occasionally went to the site of a picture too large to be removed. In 1948, he became a capital tourist attraction while restoring ‘Embarkation of the Pilgrims’ by Robert Weir, a painting which covered a major portion of the Rotunda. After retiring to Sarasota, Moore returned to his original works and continued to exhibit at local galleries.” He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art.
Born: August 13,1882, Washington, D.C.
Died: November 1, 1974, Sarasota, Florida.
Education: Linthicum Institute; Corcoran School of Art.; studied with Edmund Messer, Richard Brooke, Max Weyl and with his father.
Membership: Ramblers Sketch Club, founding member; The Miniature Painters, founding member; Sculptors & Engravers Society of Washington, D.C.; Art League of Manatee County; Sarasota Art Association; Florida Federation of Art.
Exhibits: Corcoran Gallery, one man show, 1928; Sarasota Art Association, Flowers and Landscape Exhibition, January 1959, Winter on the Anacostia; Art League of Manatee County, Pure Watercolor Member Exhibit, January 1959, Ducks in Winter; Art League of Manatee County, Annual Members Juried Exhibit, March 1959, Driftwood; Sarasota Art Association, 9th Annual, March 1959, Ringling Museum, The Valley in Spring; First Federal Savings and Loan, Siesta Key Branch, November 1972; American Artists Professional League; Corcoran Gallery, Biennial; New Haven Paint and Clay Club; Society of Independent Artists; Society of Washington Artists; Southern States Art League; Washington Watercolor Club.
