HENRY SPENCER MOORE (1898-1986)

Mother and Child Bas-relief in sculpted and gilded bronze, signed lower left. Provenance : Malago Collection, Monaco around 1980. Dimensions : 15,5 x 11 cm British sculptor, painter and draughtsman born in Castleford, also an illustrator and engraver, Henry Moore contributed to the introduction of a particular form of modernism in the United Kingdom by drawing inspiration from the so-called primitive styles of ancient civilizations such as Minoan, Assyrian, Babylonian, Roman-Gothic or later Mayan art. After training at the Leeds School of Art, he obtained a scholarship to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London. SCULPTURE Henry Moore quickly became known for his abstract bronzes, especially the monumental ones after 1945, which can be seen in many places around the world. The subjects are usually abstractions of human figures, such as Mother-and-Child or Extended Figures. Moore's early sculptures focus on direct carving in which the form of the sculpture evolves as the artist carves into the block. He prepared numerous preparatory sketches and drawings for each of his sculptures. Most of these sketchbooks have survived and provide a good insight into his development and methodology. By the late 1940s Moore was producing more and more sculptures by modeling, working the forms in clay or plaster before producing the final work in bronze by the lost wax technique. Except for a few "family group" representations in the 1950s, the subject is almost always a female figure. In addition, Moore's sculptures are often pierced or contain cavities, excavations. In his residence at Much Hadham, Moore established a collection of natural objects, skeletons, driftwood, pebbles and shells, to create a source of inspiration for organic forms. Many interpret the undulating form of these extended silhouettes as references to the landscapes and valleys of Yorkshire, the artist's birthplace. When Moore's niece asks him why his sculptures have such simple titles, he replies, "All art must have a certain mystery and must question the viewer. To give a sculpture or a drawing a title that is too explicit takes away some of that mystery, and so the viewer moves on to the next object, without making the effort to gauge the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks they understand, but actually they don't really, you know." PAINTING His talent was quickly recognized at the international level and if he is known for his sculptures representing female figures lying down, Henry Moore remains a draughtsman and watercolorist of great quality. He took particular care in preserving the drawings he had made at the Royal College and from 1921 to 1926, he filled six sketchbooks with drawings from primitive sculptures, choosing the human body as his theme. However, the artist's earliest drawings fall into two categories: those whose purpose is to study a three-dimensional object and those from 1921 to 1925 that represent neither sketches of sculpture nor human figures, but themes that he would treat again in the years 1970-1980: goats, landscapes, trees, mainly executed during his stay in Italy in 1925.