Biography
Moser was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and trained initially as a coppersmith in Geneva. He later learnt additional skills as a chaser, goldsmith and engraver.
He moved to London during the 1720s and married Mary Guynier. Surviving metal works by him include elaborate gold snuff-boxes and watch-cases (including movements by noted watchmakers George Philip Strigel and John Ellicott, among others), and silver candlesticks in the Rococo style.
Moser was the Royal Academy's first Keeper and as a teacher at the Academy taught many notable artists including William Blake. Another student was his nephew Joseph Moser. He also taught at the St Martin's Lane Academy and was drawing master to the British royal family.
Read more about this topic: George Michael Moser
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)