Window Shopping
Artist
Francis Luis Mora
(American, 1874 - 1940)
CultureAmerican
Date1934
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 29 1/2 x 34 5/8 in. (74.9 x 87.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 29 1/2 x 34 5/8 in. (74.9 x 87.9 cm)
Inscribed"F.LuisMora / 1934" Bottom right corner
Credit LineGift of the Norfolk Society of Arts
Object number35.12.1
Not on view
DescriptionOil painting in a frame. Six men in hats and coats stand on a sidewalk and look into a shop window, backs to the viewer.Label TextF. Luis Mora American (1874-1940) Window Shopping, 1934 Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Gift of the Norfolk Society of Arts 35.12.1 Luis Mora based his urban genre paintings on the skillful portrayal of human character. His goal was to capture not an individual, but a general ethnic or social "type" that viewers would easily recognize. In Window Shopping, his strategy lent itself to humor at the same time that it showcased the artist's gift for observation. Six dissimilar figures seen almost entirely from the back exhibit distinct personalities through details of clothing and posture, but all are similarly captivated by a display in a liquor store window. Mora painted Window Shopping just after the repeal of Prohibition, when the novelty of alcohol offered publicly for sale could completely overshadow an adjacent display of provocative lingerie. The son of the Spanish architectural sculptor Domingo Mora, Luis Mora was born in Uruguay, but his family soon moved to Barcelona, Spain, and then to New Jersey and Boston, where he studied at the Museum of Fine Arts School under Frank Benson. (See Benson's The Landing, nearby this painting in the gallery.) Mora lived and worked in New York for most of his life, where he was also a popular illustrator for Harper's and Scribner's magazines and became the first Hispanic member of the National Academy of Design in 1906. Exhibition History"Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Let's Go Shopping," Selden Arcade, Norfolk, VA, March 19 - June 8, 2013. "American Appetite: Selections from the Chrysler Museum of Art," Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, February 6 - June 6, 2021.
19th century
