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.
Bone Form, 1969
From Sketchbook 3, Page 34A
Additional reference: HMF3197
AG69-77.16
Eighteen Ideas for Sculpture, 1939
Pencil, wax crayon, watercolour wash, pen and ink, crayon on cream medium weight wove
Signed in ball point pen lower left ‘Moore’
Inscribed in pencil upper left ‘mother & child’
Provenance: Curt Valentin, New York
George Gallowhur, USA
Brigitta Bertoia, USA
Private collection, Los Angeles
William Beadleston Gallery, New York
James Kirkman, London
New Art Centre, London
Lillian Heidenberg Gallery, New York
Private Collection, USA
Literature: Herbert Read, Moore (Vol.1), 1944, pl152a; 1949, pl.152a
Henry Moore Complete Drawings; Volume 2 (1930-39), edited by Ann Garrould, published by Lund Humphries, no. AG39.20; HMF 1383
This drawing and Fourteen Ideas for Sculpture AG39.19 originally formed part of a large sheet. Moore gave permission for the two sections to be separated in December 1983. Moore signed this drawing when it was separated in 1983.
Around 1937, Moore became fascinated by Fabre de Lagrange’s mathematical models in the Science Museum: beautiful objects, made in 1872 from polished brass, wood and coloured filaments. Their aim was to demonstrate the new discipline of Descriptive Geometry, but for Moore it was the models’ structure and changing viewpoints that proved compelling – ‘the ability to look through the strings as with a bird cage and see one form within the other’.1 Over a three-year period, between 1937 and 1939, Moore would create around fifty sculptures in which space is modified, or circumscribed, by taut threads.
In these two sets of drawings, originally part of a single sheet, stringed figures predominate, proliferating and mutating serially across the paper. The shapes themselves suggest bones or stones, worn into uncanny cavities and curvatures. Yet Moore’s annotation ‘Mother and Child’, at the top of Eighteen Ideas for Sculpture, points to a figurative origin. For Andrew Causey, such resonances are discomforting, suggesting forms ‘poised between subhuman personages and disabled machines’.2
1. Moore, in Henry Moore and John Hedgecoe, Henry Spencer Moore (Thomas Nelson, 1968), p. 105.
2. Andrew Causey, The Drawings of Henry Moore (Lund Humphries, 2010), p. 88.
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
Fourteen Ideas for Sculpture, 1939
Pencil, wax crayon, watercolour wash, pen and ink, crayon on cream medium weight wove
Signed with pen and ink lower left ‘Moore/39’
Provenance: Curt Valentin, New York
George Gallowhur, USA
Brigitta Bertoia, USA
Private collection, Los Angeles
William Beadleston Gallery, New York
James Kirkman, London
New Art Centre, London
Lillian Heidenberg Gallery, New York
Literature: Herbert Read, Moore (Vol.1), 1944, pl152a; 1949, pl.152a
Henry Moore Complete Drawings; Volume 2 (1930-39), edited by Ann Garrould, published by Lund Humphries, no. AG39.19; HMF 1460
This drawing and Eighteen Ideas for Sculpture AG39.20 originally formed part of a large sheet. Moore gave permission for the two sections to be separated in December 1983.
Around 1937, Moore became fascinated by Fabre de Lagrange’s mathematical models in the Science Museum: beautiful objects, made in 1872 from polished brass, wood and coloured filaments. Their aim was to demonstrate the new discipline of Descriptive Geometry, but for Moore it was the models’ structure and changing viewpoints that proved compelling – ‘the ability to look through the strings as with a bird cage and see one form within the other’.1 Over a three-year period, between 1937 and 1939, Moore would create around fifty sculptures in which space is modified, or circumscribed, by taut threads.
In these two sets of drawings, originally part of a single sheet, stringed figures predominate, proliferating and mutating serially across the paper. The shapes themselves suggest bones or stones, worn into uncanny cavities and curvatures. Yet Moore’s annotation ‘Mother and Child’, at the top of Eighteen Ideas for Sculpture, points to a figurative origin. For Andrew Causey, such resonances are discomforting, suggesting forms ‘poised between subhuman personages and disabled machines’.2
1. Moore, in Henry Moore and John Hedgecoe, Henry Spencer Moore (Thomas Nelson, 1968), p. 105.
2. Andrew Causey, The Drawings of Henry Moore (Lund Humphries, 2010), p. 88.
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
Mother and Child (Design), 1961
1961-62
Felt-tipped pen, pen and ink on paper
Signed lower right
AG61-62.40
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
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.
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 Cloaked Figure, 1973
From Sketchbook 4, Page 44
Reference: HMF73/74.84; AG72-74.45
Studies for an Italian Pieta, 1974
Date: 1974-76; Verso: Seated Mother and Child. Charcoal, chinagraph. Signed in biro. From Sketchbook 2, p30
Reference: AG 73-79.30
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, 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
In 1927, Moore made a series of studies of his mother in which he captured the cast and tilt of her head improvisatorially in ink on newspaper. Fourteen years later, often from memory, he undertook to record the conditions in London’s underground shelters. These drawings are quite different in character. By apparently transforming the figures to effigies, frozen in collective indignity, Moore appeared to shy away from subjective expression, creating instead ‘a cast characters who are drawn from reality but are also generic people who suffer and endure’.1
Three Female Figures stems from the shelter drawings, in technique and approach, but also provides insight into other areas of Moore’s working practice. It is, in effect, a tableau depicting an elderly woman, hunch-shouldered, feet planted heavily, ministered by two younger women. The postures are statuesque, the gestures petrified acts of humanity, but Moore’s realisation is graphic as well as sculptural. Using a technique he described as ‘sectional drawing’, Moore divides the surface of the figures into jigsaw grids to create a sense of volume. Equally, he uses wax crayon and wash to create spontaneous effects of light, offsetting and animating the composition.
Three Female Figures, in fact, relates to Moore’s early experiments in printmaking. In 1949 Moore had begun a collaboration with the Ganymed Press, newly founded in London using equipment from its former namesake in Berlin. Ganymed’s speciality at this period was ‘collograph’, so-called by the press’s manager, Bernhard Baer, to distinguish from conventional collotypes, which were reproductive rather than autographic. Essentially, the artist would draw in separation on plastic sheets (Kodatrace) to create images transferred photographically to a light-sensitised glass plate. Among Moore’s first prints using this technique was a scarcely modified version of Three Female Figures (c. 1950), for which only eleven proofs are known to exist.2
1. Andrew Causey, The Drawings of Henry Moore (Lund Humphries, 2010), p. 13.
2. Three Female Figures, CGM 16, collograph, 50.5 x 38.1 cm, printed in black, blue-grey and yellow. See Frances Carey and Anthony Griffiths, Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960 (British Museum Publications, 1990), p. 150-52; David Mitchinson, Henry Moore Prints and Portfolios, (Patrick Cramer, 2010), p. 28, 32 (illustrated in colour). The existence of the drawing was not known at the time of Mitchinson’s study.
Two Seated Figures, 1975
Pencil, charcoal and watercolour
Date: 1975-76
Signed in pencil. From Sketchbook 1, Page 8
Reference: HMF75.77; AG75.8
