H E N R Y  M O O R E  O. M. , C. H.
British, 1898-1986

Three Reclining Figures

wash, pen and ink on paper

24.2 x 16.5 cm. (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)

Signed and dated 'Moore/70.' (lower right)

PROVENANCE:

Ezio Gribaudo, Turin

EXHIBITED:

Turin, Bon à Tirer, I Disegni di Henry Moore, 1972;

Rome, Galleria lo Spazio, Henry Moore: Disegni dal 1928 a 1971, 1972, cat. no. 43

LITERATURE:

Ann Garrould (Ed.), Henry Moore Volume 4 Complete Drawings 1950-76, Lund Humphries, London, 1998, HMF 3298, (ill. b&w p.223)

The Reclining Figure, refers directly back to the Mexican Chacmool figures in the V&A which so influenced Moore in the 1920's. The reclining figure has been the most enduring of Moore’s themes, whether it be realistic and draped in a single piece or, more expressively, divided and identified with landscape. The mind is left free to fill in the shapes between each segment.

This study is one of Moore’s most abstract inventions and almost surrealistic in its effects. There is a wonderful tension between the tangible and the intangible. Moore never committed himself to the sectarian factions and arguments that disturbed the progress of the Modern Movement. His awareness of the whole range of effective sculptural statements was an innate and constant factor in his mind. His purpose was to invent and experiment as his imagination suggested. (John Read 1998). This was drawing was later to be made into a lithograph.