Theodore Sydney Moise was the first of two children born to of Hyamand Ceclia Woolf Moise and the grandson of AbrahamMoise. Born in Charleston, Theodore and his brother Edwingrew up among among a vast extended family active in congregationBeth Elohim. One relative who was of particular importance inTheodore’s life was his aunt Penina.She was known as a prolific poet but she was also an amateur painter,and gave Theodore lessons, cultivating his passion for what wouldbecome his calling.
In 1835, Moïseopened a studio in Charleston, advertising his services as aportraist, animal painter, picture restorer, and ornamentaldraftsman. The following year he married Ceclilia Frances Moses,daughter of Isaac Clifton Moses, andsoon after they moved to Woodville, Mississippi, an affluent townflush with cash from the local cotton industry, where Edwin hadrecently settled. There, in 1837, their only child, Theodora, wasborn. Again following in Edwin’s footsteps, in 1842 they moved toNew Orleans. Cecilia died in 1844 and the following year, inNatchitoches, Louisiana, he married Matilda Jane Vaughn, with whom hewould have nine children.
In New Orleans hisreputation as a painter grew, and even as Moïse led anoften-itinerant life, traveling throughout the south, paintingportraits of landowners, their families, and their animals, hemaintained a studio in New Orleans. He shared the studio with artistssuch as Paul Poincy, Benjamin Franklin Reinhart, and Trevor ThomasFowler, often traveling together—and even collaborating—withFowler, whose style strikingly similar to his own. That style washeavily influenced by the neoclassicism of Jean-Auguste-Dominique andJacques-Louis-David and the American portraitist Rembrandt Peale. Hisbest-known paintings include portraits of Senator Henry Clay andGeneral Andrew Jackson as well as the 1867 Life on the Metairie,depicting forty-fourdistinguished New Orleanians at the last meet of the Metairie RaceTrack, which he made in collaboration with painter Victor Pierson.The painting won first prize at the Louisiana Grand State Fair forbest historical painting, and around the same time Pierson paintedthis canvas of the two colleagues riding together in a carriage.
Hispaintings in this collection include those of Edwin and Penina, aswell as MordecaiCohen,IsaacLoewengardt,AmeliaLoewengardt,CarolineLopez,IsabelMordecai, and IsaiahMoses.
