Henry Moore OM, CH

The Henry Moore Foundation, Much Hadham (from 1977)
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1997. Sold: Christie's, New York, 4th November 2003, lot 35)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Luxembourg, European Courts of Justice, 1976-1994

Alan Bowness (ed.), Henry Moore: Complete Sculpture, 1974-1980, London, 1983, vol. V, no. 655, illustration of another cast p. 22; illustrations of another cast pls. 22-27
David Mitchinson (ed.), Celebrating Moore: Works from the Collection of The Henry Moore Foundation, London, 1998, no. 238, colour illustration of another cast pp. 310-311
Moore at Kew (exhibition catalogue), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2007, catalogued p. 78; colour illustration of another cast p. 79

The subject of the reclining figure, explored in this monumental work, is probably the single most iconic image of Henry Moore’s œuvre. Initially inspired by Mexican sculpture, this subject recurs throughout the artist’s career, ranging from organic forms to near-abstract, geometric ones, and including several monumental versions. Writing about Moore’s large outdoor sculptures, David Sylvester commented: ‘They are made to look as if they themselves had been shaped by nature’s energy. They seem to be weathered, eroded, tunnelled-into by the action of wind and water. The first time Moore published his thoughts about art, he wrote that the sculpture which moved him most gave out “something of the energy and power of great mountains”. […] Moore’s reclining figures are not supine; they prop themselves up, are potentially active. Hence the affinity with river-gods; the idea is not simply that of a body subjected to the flow of nature’s forces but of one in which those forces are harnessed’ (D. Sylvester, Henry Moore, New York & London, 1968, p. 5).

Moore first started making sculptures consisting of more than one piece in the 1930s. According to the artist’s own account, it was while working on another large outdoor piece that he ‘realised what an advantage a separate two-piece composition could have in relating figures to landscape. Knees and breasts are mountains. Once these two parts become separated you don’t expect it to be a naturalistic figure; therefore, you can more justifiably make it like a landscape or a rock. If it is a single figure, you can guess what it’s going to be like. If it is in two pieces, there’s a bigger surprise, you have more unexpected views; therefore the special advantage over painting - of having the possibility of many different views - is more fully exploited’ (quoted in Carlton Lake, Atlantic Monthly, vol. 209, no. 1, Boston, January 1962, p. 44). In splitting a reclining figure into three separate forms, Moore was able to explore multiple relationships between different elements of the figure, as well as those between man and environment.

Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped is particularly exceptional; with leg and drapery sections placed side by side, its composition departs from Moore's usual linear format. The three parts seem to possess a magnetic polarisation which attract and repel each other. In this work Moore has achieved his ideal to 'turn an inert block into a composition which has a full form-existence, with masses of varied size and section conceived in their air-surrounded entirety, stressing and straining, thrusting and opposing each other in spatial relationship… being static, in the sense that the centre of gravity lies within the base… and yet having an alert dynamic tension between its parts' (the artist quoted in D. Sylvester, op. cit., pp. 5-6).