Lot 12
  • 12

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

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
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Description

  • Henry Moore OM, CH
  • Four Figures in a Setting
  • signed and dated 48
  • pencil, pen and ink, wax crayon, watercolour and gouache
  • 56.5 by 76cm.; 22¼ by 30in.

Provenance

F.R.S. Yorke Esq. by 1949, from whom acquired by the present owner

Exhibited

Wakefield, Wakefield City Art Gallery, Personal Choice, 6th March - 5th April 1953, cat. no.101 (as Standing Figures I);
London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Henry Moore: Figures in Space, Drawings, 1953, cat. no.86;
Sao Paolo, Museum of Modern Art, II Bienal, 1953-54, cat. no.67.

Literature

Anne Garrould, Henry Moore Drawings, Thames and Hudson, London, 1988, illustrated pl.140;
Anne Garrould (ed.), Henry Moore: Complete Drawings 1940-49, vol.3, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2001, HMF 2485, p.281, illustrated p.280.  

Condition

The sheet is sound. It is not laid down but the very edges have been adhered to a paper mount. These edges are slightly uneven. There are faint artist's pin holes in each corner and there is a light crease near the centre of the right-hand edge, which appears to have been an original part of the sheet. There is a very faint V-shaped scratch along the upper edge where the green and red pigments meet. There are a few minor spots of foxing around the furthest left-hand figure and in one or two other places; otherwise the work appears in excellent overall condition with strong colours throughout. Held under perspex in a simple metal frame with a beige mount. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Moore's exploration of the dynamic relationship between sculpture and architecture is particularly significant in relation to the present work as its first owner was the celebrated modernist architect, F.R.S. Yorke (1906 – 1962). Yorke became well known for his seminal text The Modern House published in 1934 and went on to work in partnership with Hungarian emigré Marcel Breuer from 1935 – 1937.  In 1944, together with Eugene Rosenberg and Cyril Mardall, he set up YRM which quickly became one of the most successful architectural practices in Post-War Britain. Moreover, Yorke was an especially important contact for Moore as in 1948, the same year as Four Figures in a Setting, the architect was responsible for Moore's first large-scale commission in bronze – a family group to be placed in front of the YRM designed Barclay Secondary School in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, installed in 1950. The magnitude of the commission is clear from the esteemed buyers of the other three casts of the sculpture – they were purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York,  Nelson D. Rockefeller, and the Tate, London.

The minimalist architectural backdrop of Four Figures in a Setting exemplifies modernist principles and is not dissimilar in style to Yorke's own avant-garde designs such as Torilla, his most important and first design for a house built in 1934 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire (fig.1). Moore was of course well aware of all the newest ideas in architectural design as at the time he was living around the corner from Wells Coates' legendary Lawn Road Flats, also known as the Isokon building, built in 1933 – 1934 in Hampstead, London. Amongst the early Isokon residents were Yorke's colleague Marcel Breuer as well as other eminent architects and artists such as Walter Gropius and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. Accordingly, Moore had first incorporated such sharp architectural spaces in his drawings executed in the mid to late 1930s such as Ideas for Sculpture (1938, HMF 1372) and Figures in an Interior (1938, HMF 1376).

In relation to Moore's wider oeuvre, the present work is unusual in its exclusive focus on standing figures, heightened by the crisp vertical lines of the architectural background. Indeed, Moore has become most well known for the horizontal emphasis of his reclining figures as well as his concentration on the subject of the mother and child. However, in 1948, the same year as Four Figures in a Setting, he was perhaps more sensitive to the standing figure subject having installed his monumental carving Three Standing Figures (1947 – 8, HMF 268) in Battersea Park; Herbert Read called it his 'most ambitious work' to date (Herbert Read, (intro.), Henry Moore Volume 1: Complete Sculpture 1921 – 48, Lund Humphries, London, 1949, reprinted 1988, p.xxviii). Like the carving, the figures in the present work take on a classical and timeless elegance through the use of drapery which, as Moore discovered in his WWII drawings of Londoners sheltering underground, 'can reveal the form more effectively than if the figure were nude because it can emphasise the prominent part of the body... (Moore, quoted in Henry Moore, exh.cat., Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2004, p.110). The draped forms are enhanced by the dynamic use of wax crayon and watercolour wash which create an almost sculptural texture to the figures and also intensify the dispersal of light and shadow throughout the composition.