ABSTRACT
Albert Moore made near repetitions and variants of his paintings, sometimes on a different scale and occasionally, in the later years of a relatively short career, venturing into watercolor and pastel to do so. In the 1870s Moore focused on a very narrow range of pictorial ideas, which he explored through close variations. Leyland’s commissioning of these pictures is the context for the first and only documented instance in Moore’s career of an attempt to negotiate permission from a client to replicate a painting—though, in the event, without success. The theme of the sofa pictures was taken forward in an ambitious way in the much larger, elaborate painting Dreamers, which commanded Moore’s attention and energy over three years from 1879 to 1882, when it was finally exhibited at the Royal Academy. Moore achieved a delicate balance between respecting these principles and standards, and responding to the possibilities of the market—between artistic integrity and the practical need to earn a living.
