Henry Moore, O.M., C.H.

Berkeley Galleries, London (by 1944)
Private Collection, London
Sale: Christie's, London, 30th October 1970, lot 164
Nicholas Guppy, London (by 1970)
Richard Attenborough, UK (acquired by 1974)
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Private Collection, United Kingdom

London, Marlborough Fine Art, A Tribute to Henry Moore 1898-1986, 1987, no. 11, illustrated in the catalogue

Kenneth Clark, Henry Moore Drawings, London, 1974, pl. 131, illustrated n.p. (titled The Presentation: Three Standing Figures and Child)
Ann Garrould (ed.), Henry Moore, Complete Drawings 1940-1949, Much Hadham, 2001, vol. III, no. AG 43.115, illustrated p. 198 

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, attached to the overmount at the centre of the top and right edges. There are artist's pinholes to all four corners. Apart from some light foxing, only visible on the reverse of the sheet, and some light fading of the pinks, typical of the pigment used by the artist, this work is in very good condition.
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The present work shows three prevalent strains of Henry Moore's art: interest in sculptural form, sensitivity of subject and relationship with medium.

It was in 1940 that Henry Moore depicted people sheltering in the underground stations of north London during the Blitz of World War II. The present work, though separate in subject to the shelter scenes, brings the theory of sculpture onto a two-dimensional format. The rounded figures, at first lumpen and stone-like are softened by the actions they perform, which though ambiguous possibly relate to the presentation of a child after birth.

Here the artist is possibly studying for a future sculpture. The figures are shown from three different angles, as if Moore is surveying an idea for a sculpture from three different sides. Yet The Presentation is clearly a work with its own autonomous story, known only to the artist, that is both tender and inspiring in its subject matter.

One of the most important aspects of Moore's post-war sculpture was the depiction of drapery, as seen in works such as The Presentation. Ultimately Moore sought to depict the soft cloth of a dress or sheet in the hardest of mediums without losing the intrinsic qualities of the material in which he worked.