Reclining Figure

Intricately shaped, Moore’s Reclining Figure exemplifies his recumbent female forms, while displaying the artist’s signature amalgamation of figurative forms and abstract elements in bronze. “From the very beginning,” Moore reflected in 1968, “the reclining figure has been my main theme. The first one I made was around 1924, and probably more than half of my sculptures since then have been reclining figures” (quoted in A.G. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Los Angeles, 2002, p. 212). His mastery of this form is patently evident in the rhythmic rising and falling curves seen in Reclining Figure. The remarkable interplay of three-dimensional forms and empty space is produced by meandering and undulating lines that create the “tension, force, and vitality,” as well as the harmony, that Moore sought to convey (quoted in C. Lichtenstern, Henry Moore: Work, Theory, Impact, London, 2008, p. 101).
The manner in which the female form is propped up on one elbow, with her twisting elongated torso and her knee raised up, is compositionally similar to other important examples of Moore’s reclining figures such as Recumbent Figure currently in the collection of the Tate Britain in London. Moore's reclining figures sculpted during the earlier pre-war years appear more grounded with all four limbs securely attached to the base, projecting in Albert Elsen's words, “a quiet majesty, an aloofness and serenity” (quoted in Modern European Sculpture, 1918-1945, New York, 1978, p. 50).