A Summer Night 1890

Albert Joseph Moore made this oil painting, A Summer Night, in England during the late 19th century. The painting depicts a group of women in classical drapery, arranged in a horizontal composition reminiscent of a frieze. Moore was associated with the Aesthetic movement, which emphasized beauty and artistic expression above all else. The Aesthetic movement reacted against industrialization and Victorian moralism. The movement’s artists looked to classical and oriental cultures to produce art that was 'art for art's sake', pursuing sensations of pleasure. In Victorian England, academic institutions like the Royal Academy played a crucial role in shaping artistic tastes and Moore, who exhibited there regularly, straddled the academic art world and the avant-garde. His work provides a glimpse into the complex interplay between artistic movements, institutional structures, and cultural values. Art historians use various research resources such as period writings and exhibition reviews to better understand the meaning of art as something contingent on social and institutional context.