Celebrating Women’s History Month with the Enigmatic Art of Esther M. Moore

By Max Bryant

March 4, 2025—This month a work returns to display at Mia that’s been unseen for decades: Esther M. Moore’s The Charmed Circle of Youth. For the occasion, we’re here to tell the story of her enigmatic work—or as much as is possible to tell.

In the early 1900s, Esther M. Moore created The Charmed Circle of Youth, a sculpture of a winged, Cupid-like figure, on view this March in Mia’s lobby. A curious horn hangs from his hand, filled with his quarry­. Though exactly what this quarry constitutes is unclear: birds, perhaps, or flowers.

The obscurity of the English artist’s life matches the mysterious qualities of her art. We know very little of her biography, and she left only a small if compelling body of work. Her subjects are poetic and mostly allegorical, referencing literature or mythology or a symbolism of her own invention. Some of her works are titled in German. All serve as a testament to a distinctive creative personality.

The Shaping of a Sculptor

Moore was born in 1857 in Lancashire, in the North West of England, the middle of three daughters. Her father managed a coal mine, one of hundreds that had sprung up in that part of the country during the Industrial Revolution. Her life changed dramatically in her early 30s, when she won a scholarship to study in London at the National Art Training School, which later became the Royal College of Art. 

London was then the largest city in the world, and Moore lived in Chiswick, in Bedford Park, one of the new “garden suburbs.” Artists congregated there, drawn by the proximity to nature, the fashionable architecture, and the space available for studios. Camille Pissarro’s son, a painter, lived down the road. In 1901, Moore described herself in a census as an “Artist (Sculptor) working on own account at home.” 

Moore studied the modeling of sculptural forms, which prepared her for the skillful depiction of the nude in her work. A short profile of her in the Art Journal describes her modeling first in wax, very roughly, then casting the model in plaster, which was then worked up by hand, all on-site at Moore’s home-studio. Works in bronze were probably cast at the newly founded Parlanti Foundry, which was located in West London.

Moore lacked the army of assistants that supported sculptors like Auguste Rodin. But this small operation gave Moore’s work a sense of immediacy and character that can be lacking in the sometimes impersonal world of 19th- and 20th-century bronze sculpture.

The earliest of her sculptures may be a pair of bronze reliefs, now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, bearing poetic inscriptions from Shakespeare: “Let Time’s News Be Known” and “Misery’s Love, O Come to Me.” By the early 1890s, Moore was exhibiting consistently at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the most established space for contemporary art in Victorian London. Here, she showed some of her ambitious works of decorative art: designs for silver panels on a piano, in 1896; an electric light statuette, in 1899. 

There is an obvious debt in these early creations to Alfred Gilbert, whose poetic, Art Nouveau-influenced work was widely celebrated at the time. Like Moore, he often worked in the decorative arts, to great effect. However, as much as the male journalist who profiled Moore for the Art Journal commended her for turning her skills to the applied arts, this was not her ultimate goal. 

A Core of Mystery

Moore called an early work (now unlocated) Handwerk steht auf goldene Füsze, a German phrase suggesting that manual labor stands “on golden feet.” The name is derived from the subtitle of a novel in which a humble craftsman rises in status—eventually becoming an adviser to a prince. 

Moore’s decorative panels and electric light holders were precursors to her monumental sculpture At the Gates of the Past, which stands more than six feet high. The composition was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1897. Its source is probably Anna Lea Merritt’s famous painting Love Locked Out, from 1890—the first painting by a woman artist to be acquired by the British government. 

Moore likely had similar ambitions for her own work, and in some ways she succeeded. In 1899, Moore exhibited her sculpture Aurora Vitae (Dawn of Life) at the Royal Academy. Eight years later, Gilbert would exhibit his Mors Janua Vitae (Death, the Door to Life). The similarities are hard to explain without speculating that, in this case, the obscure Moore may have influenced the famous Gilbert.

Moore’s The Charmed Circle of Youth, on the other hand, would seem to be a deliberate reaction to Gilbert’s Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain (popularly known as “Eros”), which became one of the most famous works of contemporary sculpture when it was unveiled in Piccadilly Circus in London in 1893. But rather than perching actively, bow in hand, Moore’s Eros figure lounges contentedly, dangling his fantastical horn. 

As her career progressed, Moore seemed to move further and further from the clearly explicable in her work. Away from familiar quotations to poetic phrases of her own. Away from familiar symbolism to something hermetic and autonomous—entirely unique to her. The Charmed Circle of Youth, in this sense, is a kind of culmination of Moore’s entire career. Indeed, it’s her last sculpture for which we have visual evidence. 

Moore continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1919. Her last known work was a marble relief titled In Memoriam, presumably honoring the soldiers killed in World War I. By this point, Moore was 62 years old. The fantastical vein in which she worked was out of fashion. Gilbert, ostracized in England for numerous transgressions, had left the country. Sculpture that was more straightforward—heroic, monumental, aimed at the masses—was in vogue.

The English arts patron Sir John Lewis gave Mia The Charmed Circle of Youth as a gift of appreciation for the years he had some of his collection on loan at the museum. At the time, in 1992, Moore was a tantalizingly obscure name. Three decades later, we’ve uncovered enough information to confirm that the work is among her most important. And we’re likely to discover more. However, as much as we find out about her life, a core of mystery will always remain at the heart of her sculpture.

Learn more about art by women in Mia’s collection.