Encaustic painting, 'Cardinal Manning' (study for part of a decoration in the Central Criminal Court, London) by Gerald Moira, 1906

Painting of Cardinal Manning, a full size study for detail of decoration in the Central Criminal Court, London.

Given by the artist

Given by the artist, 1923

Gerald Moira was born on 26 January 1867, the son of Eduardo Lobo da Moira, a Portuguese diplomat who became a miniature painter. His training in art began at the age of eighteen when he started to attend night classes. Two years later, in 1887, he entered in the Royal Academy’s schools where he won the Armitage Prize for figure composition. Following a period in Paris, Moira returned to the Royal Academy where he exhibited for the first time in 1891.

In 1898 Moira was tasked by J. Lyons and Co. to decorate the Trocadero restaurant in Shaftesbury Avenue. For his subject he chose Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, around which he painted four large panels. The success of this saw Moira gain a reputation as a painter of murals with him gaining numerous commissions including the decoration of the library and vestry of the Unitarian church in Liverpool in 1898 and the boardroom of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping in 1901.

Moira’s most important commission came soon afterwards when, thanks to a recommendation by George Frederick Watts, he was asked to decorate the newly constructed Central Criminal Court (1902-6), for which he produced three large lunettes and two stained glass windows, amongst other paintings. This commission included a depiction of Justice with her scales surrounded by various eminent persons, and representations of Mosaic Law, with Moses and the Ten Commandments, and English Law, complete with King Alfred and the Druidical stones. His obituary in The Times commented on how he “combined an excellent decorative feeling with an appropriate historical and allegorical sense”.

The First World War saw a development in Moira’s art in that he began to depict more contemporary themes. This change is exemplified by his War Workers, 1914-8 (Salford Museum and Art Gallery). This wartime painting, which shows female nurses acting as seamstresses, can be seen as an expression of women’s contribution to the war effort. His 1916 work A War Allegory shows a combination of his new and former styles with a sober scene of a bedridden soldier, his family and nurse all flanked by vast allegorical figures.

Moira was a frequent exhibitor with the Royal Academy and Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours and in 1945 was elected President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. On top of this he was Principal of Edinburgh College of Art from 1923 until his retirement from the post in 1932. In his later years Moira continued to paint extensively in oils, tempera and watercolours with subjects ranging from landscapes to figurative compositions and portraits.

This portrait of Cardinal Manning is a study for part of the decoration of the Central Criminal Court. Its medium is encaustic on canvas, a technique involving pigments mixed with hot wax. The study was described at the time of acquisition (1923) as a “painting of much technical interest” due to the general interest at that time in methods of mural painting.

The subject of the work is Henry Edward Manning, an important religious figure in Britain in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As the Archbishop of Westminster and cardinal he was a populist and reformer who believed that the fate of the Church lay no longer with the ruling classes but the common people. It was Cardinal Manning's purchase of a suitable plot of land which enabled his successor, Cardinal Vaughan, to commission the design and construction of Westminster Cathedral.

References:
The Times, Tuesday, Aug 04, 1959; pg. 11; Issue 54530; col F
Harold Watkins, The Art of Gerald Moira (London: E.W. Dickens, 1922)
V&A Registry Nominal File MA/1/M2430 (Moira)

This portrait of Cardinal Manning is a study for part of the decoration of the Central Criminal Court. Its medium is encaustic on canvas, a technique involving pigments mixed with hot wax. There was an increased interest in methods of mural painting at the time this work was acquired in 1923.

Henry Edward Manning was an important religious figure in Britain in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As the Archbishop of Westminster and cardinal, he was a populist and reformer who believed that the fate of the Catholic Church lay no longer with the ruling classes but the common people. It was Cardinal Manning's purchase of a suitable site which enabled his successor, Cardinal Vaughan, to commission the design and construction of Westminster Cathedral.

E.652-1923