Henry Moore

Galerie Emiel Veranneman, Kruishoutem, Belgium
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1988-89

Alan Bowness (ed.), Henry Moore, Complete Sculpture 1974-80, London, 1983, vol. 5, no. 651, illustration of another cast pls. 20-21 

Attractive brown and golden patina. Structurally sound. There are some tiny, very minor casting imperfections visible upon close inspection. This work is in very good condition.
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The motif of the militaristic helmet head was one of the most powerful and effective symbols utilised by Henry Moore. Through this theme he explored the associations of external threat to the individual and the ideas of defence and protection, highlighting mankind's vulnerability against the threat of the ever-developing capabilities of war machinery. These works are usually interpreted as having reference to the World War II, but it is often forgotten that Moore fought in the trenches during World War I and inspiration may also have come from this time.  

The Helmet Head series owes much to Moore’s pre-occupation with placing forms within forms in his sculptures and the relationship between internal and external.  He was first encouraged to explore these themes from the examples of sculpture he found in the British Museum: ‘I realised what a sense of mystery could be achieved by having the inside partly hidden so that you have to move round the sculpture to understand it. I was also staggered by the craftsmanship needed to make these interior carvings’ (Henry Moore, quoted in Claude Allemand-Cosneau, Manfred Fath and David Mitchinson (eds.), Henry Moore From the Inside Out, Prestel, Munich and New York, 1996, p. 22). This interest in the internal versus external first manifested itself in drawings of the mid-1930s and 1940s, and by the late 1930s Moore was exploring this theme in his sculptures. In comparison to these earlier works, Helmet Head No. 6, conceived in 1975, demonstrates a development to a softer more organic finish, less angular and militaristic than the more severe Helmet sculptures of the immediate Post-War era. The helmet shape has been reduced so it has almost lost its reference to the original helmet form; now more like a cave or shelter forming a protective shell around the inner form which it shields. The vulnerability of the inner form is enhanced through the impression of the soft flesh of an embryo. The more organic qualities of this form in contrast to the solidity of the outside shape, fits into Moore’s interest in the interplay between abstract and figurative forms also evident in the Mother and Child series.  

Helmet Head No. 6 is particularly interesting as it shows a development from the original maquette (see Maquette for Helmet Head No. 6 (LH 650)), in which the inner form is placed at the back of the helmet; now in the present work, the inner form has moved forward and in the final manifestation of the sculpture, Large Figure in a Shelter (LH 652c), a monumental bronze standing 7.6 meters high, the inner form stands outside the helmet at artist's former house, now The Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, Hertfordshire.