A Venus

'A Venus' of 1869, a mythological subject in Moore's oeuvre, belongs to the narrow category of works in which he used a classical title not for narrative purposes but as a device for justifying the unclothed or semi-clothed female figure within the aesthetic rather than erotic tradition of the classical nude. Venus as a subject allowed Moore to operate within the venerable European tradition of the ideal female form while maintaining his commitment to purely aesthetic rather than narrative content. By 1869 Moore had declared his aesthetic position clearly enough that a Venus by his hand would be understood as a colour and form exercise rather than a mythological story. The treatment of the nude in the Aesthetic Movement was a contested space: artists like Leighton and Poynter maintained classical propriety, while Moore's approach stripped even the mythological pretext down to its aesthetic fundamentals.

The classical nude figure is rendered with the academic precision of Moore's sculptural training, with cool flesh modelling that aligns the body with his general preference for cool tonal harmonies over warm sensual surfaces. The background and setting are kept minimal, focusing attention on the figure's formal properties rather than any narrative environment.