H. H. Moore's Almeh and the Politics of the Centennial Exhibition
The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia is best known today for the jury's rejection of Thomas Eakins's Gross Clinic. However, that incident was barely noticed in its time. Instead, artists and critics were caught up in the furor surrounding the rejection of another painting that is virtually unknown today: Harry Humphrey Moore's Almeh, a Dream of Alhambra. The refusal of Moore's Almeh brought to a boil debates that had been simmering in the East Coast art community for years. Its rejection forced a public confrontation between two groups of American artists: New York landscape painters who supported native training, and figure painters of Philadelphia and Boston who advocated European study. The scandal of Moore's Almeh provides a lens through which to view the ways that the Centennial Exhibition's United States art display generated a public debate on American art's nature as well as its future.