I was going through some old issues of Majolica Matters, the newsletter of the Majolica International Society and came upon an article by Allison Palz about the painter Louis Charles Moeller. In the article, Ms. Palz talks about seeing a piece of Wardle Fan majolica in a painting of Moeller's in an auction catalog.
Wardle majolica Fan tea set
Wardle majolica Fan jug
This got me wondering if any of Moeller's other work included majolica so I did a search on Google. Dozens of his paintings came up. I discovered that Moeller is a well known American genre artist who specialized in these quaint little interior scenes. He was born in 1855 and did quite a bit of his paintings in the US in the 1870's-1880's. This placed him right in the middle of the Aesthetic Movement and the Asian influence on the arts.
Sure enough this same Wardle majolica teapot that appears in the painting in Allison Palz's article appeared in many other Moeller works of the period. So did the matching sugar bowl and pitcher. Like most artists he kept a stable of "props" in his studio that appeared over and over in his work.
I wonder how many other works of art contain these hidden majolica treasures? If you know of one, please drop me a line and I'll post it here!
WOW!!! That's fascinating!! I will keep my eyes open to see if I come across any other pieces in some other art works.
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