Moon, Henry George (1857 - 1905)

Born 18 February 1857 Barnet, Hertfordshire, UK, died 6 October 1905 St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.

English landscape and botanical painter, noted for his orchid paintings. He never visited Australia, but painted several Australian plants.

He was the eldest son of Henry Moon, parliamentary agent at Westminster. He received his schooling at Dr. Bell's in Barnet, and later became a student at the Birkbeck and St. Martin's schools of art.

When he was 21, Moon worked as a legal clerk intending to become a barrister, but in 1880 his interest in art led to his joining the art team of The Garden, a fashionable horticultural journal. . From then on, Moon created most of the magazine's coloured plates. He spent much time during this period furthering his interest in landscape painting, and was greatly influenced by a companion, William Edward Norton (1843-1916), an American painter. Moon also contributed art work to The English Flower Garden, Wild Garden, and Flora and Silva.

In the autumn of 1892, Moon settled permanently in St Albans with his mother and sister. Two years later he married the orchid nurseryman Frederick Sander's daughter and produced a steady flow of paintings for Sander and a number of publications. He was frequently to be found in the countryside, painting and sketching.

He played an active and valued role in art circles as judge and critic, and often attended working sessions and exhibitions at the London sketching clubs - the Birkbeck, the Gilbert-Garrett, the Langhorn, and the Polytechnic.

Moon's already frail health suffered as a result of the constant demands placed on it - doing his own framing, and dealing with the constant claims made on his time and energy from other sources. His death at the relatively youthful age of forty eight, brought great sorrow to his family, the firm of Sander, and the worlds of botanical art and orchid culture. He left his widow and two young sons.

Source: Extracted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moon 2011