Felix Stone Moscheles (8 February 1833 – 22 December 1917) was an English painter, writer, peace activist and advocate of

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

. He frequently painted genre scenes and portraits.

Biography

Born on 8 February 1833 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to a

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

family, Felix Moscheles was the son of the well-known pianist and music teacher

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano at the ...

. The family settled in London during the early 1800s, where his father taught at the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

. The family converted to Christianity after the move to England. His godfather, after whom he was named, was the composer

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

, who had been a pupil of his father. In the 1840s, Mendelssohn founded

Leipzig Conservatory The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...

and Moscheles' father took on a teaching post there. Felix attended the St. Thomas School and went on to study art. He married painter Margaret Moscheles (née Sobernheim) in 1875 in Germany. Together they spent the winter of 1893 in traveling in North Africa, which inspired a body of artwork. His paintings were exhibited in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and

. Felix Moscheles studied painting with

Jozef Van Lerius Joseph Henri François Van Lerius (23 December 1823, Antwerp – 29 February 1876, Mechelen) was a Belgian painter in the Romantic-Historical style. Life Van Lerius was born in Boom, Antwerp, on 23 November 1823. In 1838, he was already an ap ...

. In 1894, Moscheles returned to London, where he built a studio in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. In 1903 Felix Moscheles became the first president of the London Esperanto Club. He was a pacifist and internationalist, and as such also served as president of the

International Arbitration and Peace Association The International Arbitration and Peace Association (IAPA) was an organisation founded in London in 1880 with the stated objective of promoting arbitration and peace in place of armed conflicts and force. It published a journal, ''Concord''. Found ...

. He was involved in attempts to develop international dispute resolution protocols at the Hague. He died on 22 December 1917 in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Publications

* "Patriotism as an Incentive to Warfare" (1870; Wertheimer, London) * ''In Bohemia with Du Maurier. The first of a series of reminiscences''. With 63 original drawings by G. Du Maurier, illustrating the artist's life in the fifties (1896; T. F. Unwin, London) * ''Fragments of an Autobiography'' (1899; James Nisbet, London)Felix Moscheles (1899) ''Fragments of an Autobiography''
Harper & Bros., New York and London (Google eBook)

Notes

External links

* * 1833 births 1917 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters English Esperantists English pacifists English people of Czech-Jewish descent English people of German-Jewish descent Painters from London People educated at the St. Thomas School, Leipzig 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists {{England-painter-stub