Water Nymph 99/11

In 2009, when designer, Kerry Goodwin, shocked everyone, including myself, with the arrival of Wood Nymph, Moorcroft art took one huge leap forward.  Collectors would never except even an artistic version of the naked female form, we thought.  William and Walter Moorcroft would turn in their graves, others muttered nervously.  Perhaps that may have been so, but just because something had never been done before, was not, in itself, a reason to justify saying that it could never be done at all.  After all, the era of Art Nouveau was a seething mass of sleek female forms.  Just ask René Lalique or Eric Knowles!  The answer is much more simple.  Either William and Walter chose not to portray the naked female form or they did not know how to draw it.  I prefer the latter explanation, but it took until 2009 before Moorcroft discovered that it could use the female form in design, and that it could do so in a way which caused no offence whatever.  Curiously, it was our gallant and indeed broad-minded retailers who first invested in Wood Nymph. Collectors rapidly followed suit and Moorcroft nudes became part of the rich tapestry of our history.