F. Luis Mora

This versatile artist was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where his father was a well-known sculptor and director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. His mother was of French descent and at age six he and his family emigrated to America. His initial art education came from his father but he later studied at a seminary in New Jersey and the public schools of New York and Boston. His formal art training took place at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he studied under Frank Benson and Edmund Tarbell. In New York he studied at the Art Students League under H. Siddons Mowbray.

After completing his studies, Mora was elected vice president of the Art Students League, at which time he executed his well-known "Ball at the Art Students League" in which a number of his fellow artists can be identified. Later he taught drawing and painting at William Merritt Chase's New York Art Academy.

Mora did illustrations for Harper's Weekly and Round Table and received numerous mural commissions - his first important one was a large decorative mural for the main hall of the Public Library in Lynn, Massachusetts. Other major mural commissions included the Missouri State Building for the St. Louis Fair, the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, the Red Cross Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Post Office in Clarkesville, Tennessee.

In our large and colorful oil on canvas (perhaps a study for a mural) he captures a wonderful American phenomenon: three children are in rapt attention as they enjoy a tea party with their varied doll collection. This work has an unusual quality; a wisdom of technique and a gaiety of spirit.

Mora was a member of many clubs, the winner of numerous awards, is in the collection of a number of fine museums, but to our knowledge has yet to be the subject of a much deserved art-historical study.

American Art Notes, Autum 1984, p. 2