Theodore Sydney Moïse
Theodore Sydney Moïse (November 10, 1808 – July 2, 1885) was an American painter known for portraits and pictures of horses. He was one of the South’s first artists to specialize in horses, and his style is described as neoclassical.
Moïse was born in Charleston, South Carolina, where he grew up. He moved to Mississippi in 1836 and to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1842, where he lived the rest of his life. He ran a successful portrait studio in New Orleans and worked with other artists such as Benjamin Franklin Reinhart and Paul Poincy.
He traveled around the South to paint prominent and wealthy families, often including their dogs, horses, and servants in the portraits. He painted many judges for the Orleans Parish Courthouse. His works are in major museums today, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Filson Historical Society, and the Louisiana State Museum.
One notable work is a portrait of Senator Henry Clay, painted from life in New Orleans in 1843. The painting’s attribution was later misattributed to Samuel Morse when it reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which briefly displayed it as Morse’s. The piece was donated to the Met in 1909 by Grace H. Dodge. In 1925, the museum corrected the record and credited the painting to Moïse, with the signature reading “Moïse, Jan. 1843.”
He had relatives including his aunt Penina Moïse and his brother Edwin Warren Moïse.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:43 (CET).