Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Celebrated as a sculptor, but was strongly influenced in his formative years by painters such as Giotto, Masaccio, Blake, Turner and Picasso, as well as the painter/sculptor Michaelangelo. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire. Attended Leeds School of Art from 1919-21. In 1921 Moore won a Royal Exhibition Scholarship to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London. He taught at the Royal College from 1924-31 and at Chelsea School of Art from 1932-39. He was given his first one-man show in 1928 by the Warren Gallery and in the same year he gained his first public commission – to carve a relief in stone for a façade of the new Underground Building, London.
Moore was a member of the Seven and Five Society from 1931 and he was invited to join Unit One; a group whose members included Edward Burra, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Edward Wadsworth. In 1946 Moore was given his first overseas retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1948 he won the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale. He had a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London in 1951 and 1968. He was First prize winner at the Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil in 1953.
Moore was a Trustee of the National Gallery, London from 1955-74. In 1977 he formed the Henry Moore Foundation at Much Hadham in Hertfordshire.
He was notable throughout his career for his output of graphic art (drawings, watercolours, etchings, lithographs), not necessarily closely related to the development of individual works in sculpture. These unusually for a sculptor, often used colour and often established a complete pictorial
setting for figures or for imaginary sculptural objects, in a manner recalling the work of De Chirico or Max Ernst. ( He exhibited in the International Surrealist exhibition in 1936). During the Second World War, as an Official War Artist, he made a series of drawings of people sheltering in the London Underground, as well as studies of miners at the coalface. He frequently used watercolour over wax crayon employed as a resist.
LIT:
Henry Moore, Sculpture and Drawings, D. Sylvester, H. Read, and Alan Bowness, 6 Vols, Lund Humphries, London, 1948-64
Henry Moore, Graphics in the Making, Pat Gilmour, Tate Gallery, 1975.
Family Group, 1944
Pencil, wax crayon, watercolour, pen & ink on paper
Signed & dated ‘Moore/44’ lower right, inscribed ‘Family Group’ upper centre & inscribed ’21’ upper right.
From the Rescue Sketchbook, page 21. The early part of this sketchbook contains various studies for textile designs and family groups which may date to 1943. The latter part to preliminary sketches for The Rescue, a melodrama by Edward Sackville-West published in 1945 including reproductions of Moore’s drawings.
Reference: Henry Moore, The Complete Drawings, volume 3
Page 214, AG 44.20, HMF 2241a
Provenance:
Private Collection, UK, 1954
James Kirkman, London
Piccadilly Gallery, London
Girl Doing Homework, 1972
Signed in pen lower left
Rear end paper from the Red Notebook, containing drawings made between 1969-1977, some of which are studies of the artist’s daughter Mary.
Reference:
Henry Moore, The Complete Drawings, volume 4, page 207, number HMF3227; AG69-77.58
Ideas for Sculpture, 1942
Pencil, wax crayon, charcoal (rubbed), watercolour wash, pen and ink
Signed ‘Moore.’, lower right and inscribed
‘Seated figure.’ center left;
(Reference: HMF 2040; AG 42.148)
Provenance
Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin) New York (by 1955).
Erna Futter, New York; Estate sale,
Private Collection, UK
Literature
Ann Garrould, ed., Henry Moore Complete
Drawings 1940-49, vol. 3, London, 2001, no.
AG42.148, illustrated p. 156.
Henry Moore Sculpture and Drawings, with
an introduction by Herbert Read, published
by Lund Humphries, first published 1944,
illustrated p. xxxii
As its title implies this working, energetic sheet is a graphic rehearsal or blueprint for possible sculptures and contains both reclining, seated and figures with internal forms, themes which were to dominate Moore’s career. Elements hark back to the surrealist tendencies from the late 1930’s but also formal sculptural resolutions have evolved on the sheet and are familiar in works from the 1940’s onwards. The energetic application of layers of mixed media echoes the bony, taut surfaces of the sculptures. The memorable drawing Crowd looking at a tied-up object (1942) recalls Yves Tanguy’s ocean-bed surrealism. Ideas for Sculpture, though a set of un-related studies rather than an independent or cohesive narrative, contains a similarly elusive feeling of mystery and atmospheric flux.
P D
Mother and Child (Design), 1961
1961-62
Felt-tipped pen, pen and ink on paper
Signed lower right
AG61-62.40
Reclining Figures, 1943
Pencil, charcoal, wax crayons, pen, ink & wash on paper
Signed & dated lower left ‘Moore 43’ & with various inscriptions by the artist
Provenance:
Private Collection, Chicago (acquired before 1950 & thence by descent)
Private Collection, USA
Exhibited:
Stanford, Iris & B Gerald Cantor Centre for Visual Arts, Stanford University, on loan, March 2000
Literature:
Ann Garrould (ed.), Henry Moore, Complete Drawings, vol.3, 1940-49, Aldershot, 2001, no.AG43.107; HMF 2156, ills.p.196
This drawing is reminiscent of a work from the same period Reclining Figures: Ideas for Stone Sculpture, 1944, in which each figure appears in an individual pod in a subterranean setting, recalling the mysterious fascination that caves in hillsides and cliffs held for the artist. Moore’s interest in underground landscapes had previously been expressed in his ‘Shelter Drawings’ series of 1941, depicting figures taking refuge in the London Underground during the Blitz, and in his coal mining drawings of the same year
Sculptural Ideas, 1935
Signed and dated in ink
Reference: Henry Moore, The Complete Drawings, volume 2, page 164, number AG 35.91, HMF1180
Provenance;
Irina Moore
Seated Mother & Child with Animals in Landscape, 1972
Unsigned, undated
From The Red Notebook, p.68 verso
Literature:
Henry Moore, The Complete Drawings, volume 2, page 270, number AG72-74.37, HMF 73/74 (77)
Seated Nude, c.1924
Pen and ink, charcoal and chalk
(Reference: AG 24.3 / HMF 214a)
Provenance
Mr & Mrs Rowland Howarth
Thence by descent
Literature
Ann Garrould, ed., Henry Moore Complete Drawings 1916-29, vol. 1, London, 1996, no. AG 24.3, illustrated p. 85
This drawing is from a group of life studies completed by the artist in the mid 1920s. It was gifted by Moore to his sister Elizabeth (Betty) Howarth.
Six Reclining Figures, 1944
Pencil, watercolour, colour crayon, pen and black ink on paper
Signed and dated lower left
Inscribed “Reclining Figures for terracotta Oct 61 (Draped”
Reference: HMF2259; AG44.74
Provenance:
Jeffrey H Loria, New York
Private Collection UK
Standing and Seated Figures, 1948
Coloured crayon, ink and pencil
Signed lower right
The Henry Moore Foundation has suggested a date of 1948 for the drawing and that it originally was part of the 1947-49 sketchbook
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to his nephew as a wedding present (Albert Spencer Speight)
Thence by descent
Literature: The drawing is registered in the Henry Moore Foundation’s archives as HMF 2440a.
Standing Nude in Profile, 1928
Pen and ink and wash on paper
Signed and dated lower left
43 x 29 cm (17 x 11 in)
(Reference: HMF 558; AG 28.70)
Literature Ann Garrould, ed., Henry Moore Complete Drawings 1916-29, vol. 1, London, 1996, no. AG 28.70, illustrated p. 185
Studies for an Italian Pieta, 1974
Date: 1974-76; Verso: Seated Mother and Child. Charcoal, chinagraph. Signed in biro. From Sketchbook 2, p30
Additional reference: HMF74/6.30
Studies of Sleeping Child: The Artists Nephew Peter, 1922
Pencil on cream lightweight paper
(Reference: AG 22.23 / HMF 22)
Provenance: Mr & Mrs Rowland Howarth
Thence by descent
Literature: Ann Garrould, ed., Henry Moore Complete Drawings 1916-29, vol. 1, London, 1996, no. AG 22.23, illustrated p. 53
Study of Madonna and Child, 1943
Signed lower right
Provenance:
The Artist
By whom gifted to Duncan Guthrie, 1952
Private Collection, UK
Reference:
HMF 2186b
This drawing is one of the preparatory studies for the Madonna and Child sculpture in St Matthews Church, Northampton which Moore executed in 1944. This particular version was also modelled by the artist in terracotta and subsequently cast in bronze.
Duncan Guthrie was the founder of the National Fund for Research into Poliomyelitis & Other Crippling Diseases, a charitable organisation now known as Action Medical Research. Following the charity’s foundation in 1952, Guthrie inaugurated a series of Christmas seals as a fundraiser and invited Henry Moore to provide a design, which forms the present work.
The Violinist, c.1919
Pen and ink, brush and ink on off-white wove mounted on board
Monogram in pen and ink lower right
The monogram of initials enclosed in a circle is similar to that Moore used on pottery he produced between 1917 and 1920
(Reference: AG 19.1 / HMF 19.1)
Provenance: Mr & Mrs Rowland Howarth; Thence by descent
Literature: Ann Garrould, ed., Henry Moore Complete Drawings 1916-29, vol.1, London, 1996, no. AG 19.1, illustrated p. 19
Three Female Figures, 1949
Pencil, crayon, ink & gouache on paper
Signed & dated lower right, inscribed ‘Lithograph’
upper centre
(Reference: HMF2436a)
Provenance
The Leicester Galleries, London, where purchased by Sir Eric
Maclagan, May 1951.
Thence by family descent.
Exhibited
The Leicester Galleries, London, New Bronzes and Drawings
by Henry Moore , 1951, cat.no.41
Henry Moore’s vast graphic output echoed the work ethic that guided an equally prolific production of sculpture. Arguably his greatest, and certainly most famous, drawing series was the Italianate Shelter Drawings, documentary yet imaginatively improvised line and wash studies based on the sleeping families taking refuge from the wartime blitz on London Underground platforms.
The war also presaged the coal miner drawings with their Barbizon-like labour postures and dramatic subterranean
chiaroscuro. Then, with the return of peace and the birth of an only child, Mary, in 1946, Moore continued to develop Madonna and Child or Family Group themes, subjects that again touched a popular nerve in the optimistic, if austere, post-war climate of social reconstruction.
The animated Three Female Figures contains a cryptic, interactive narrative while continuing the draped or blanketed
surface rhythms of the dormant shelter figures. Moore’s drawings, with their characteristic bony textures, segmented sections and undulating lines used to describe weight, bulk and volume, are quintessentially those of a sculptor. The dramatic shading and highlighting further emphasises the play of light on solid form. The drawing was chosen as the basis for one of Moore’s earliest lithographs to be published by Cowell of Ipswich. The project was never realised and only a few trial proofs are known to exist.
This mixed media drawing has the vividly modelled weight of a painting and the trio of female figures resemble the post-war classicism of his sculpture. A major show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1946) and his winning first prize at the Venice Biennale (1948) set him on course for spectacular international success.
P D
Two Reclining Figures (Double Sided), 1966
Felt-tipped and ballpoint pen
Signed lower left
Verso: Two Reclining Figure, 1966
Felt-tipped and ballpoint pen
Signed and dated lower right
HMF 3153; AG66.40
Two Seated Figures, 1975
Pencil, charcoal and watercolour
Date: 1975-76
Signed in pencil. From Sketchbook 1, Page 8
Reference: HMF75.77; AG75.8
