Study for "A Summer Night"

This drawing is a preparatory work for the oil painting 'A Summer Night', also in the Walker Art Gallery's collection (WAG 2125). Produced between 1884 and 1886 it shows that Moore took several years to develop the oil painting, exhibited in 1890. One of many drawings produced by Moore to perfect his original idea, it shows a mirror images of the final work, in which the figures have been reversed and their poses adjusted. Moore in this drawing was working through ideas of draped rather than nude figures.