Reclining Figure

‘From the very beginning 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’ (H. Moore, quoted in J. Hedgecoe (ed.), Henry Moore, London, 1968, p. 151).

Conceived in 1938, before the outbreak of the Second World War, Reclining Figure offers a prime example of a pervasive and iconic motif that resonates throughout Henry Moore’s extensive artistic oeuvre. Initially inspired by visits to the British Museum, France and Italy, Moore’s representations of the reclining human form afforded him the means of limitless experimentation. In particular, his exposure to and admiration of Mesoamerican sculpture at the Louvre museum ignited a career-long obsession that embraced an essential and abstracted articulation of the reclining female body. The present work was created as a maquette for one of Moore’s largest Elmwood sculptures that now resides in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Reclining Figure exemplifies Moore’s unique ability to reinvent a universal image through the subversion of conventional modes of form and representation.

For Henry Moore, the 1930s presented a time of increased personal and creative freedom. Moore and his wife had acquired a cottage in Kent in 1934. He now had access to an expansive outdoor space in which to work and the financial flexibility to experiment with new materials, such as bronze. It was during this period that Moore began to depart from the more block-like rigidity of earlier sculptures, introducing globular shapes and fluid meandering lines to his reclining forms. Moore also became increasingly more concerned that his sculptures were understood and appreciated in the round – from multiple perspectives. In Reclining Figure, the bronze is perforated by a series of holes that demonstrate an intentional interplay between the work and its environment. Consequently, the eye is not only drawn to look around the sculpture, but through it as well. Moore insisted ‘Complete three dimensional form – form in the round – is form in space, the far side of a form should be known when seeing the front of it, its volume should be comprehended, which is the space that the form displaces in the air’ (H. Moore, 'Some Notes of Space and Form in Sculpture', 1970, in Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity).

The large Elmwood Reclining Figure was supposedly proposed by Russian born architect, Berthold Lubetkin, after seeing the present maquette and intended for display in the alcove of a London penthouse. Although Moore did not accept the commission, the idea that the sculpture was once proposed for an interior setting could account for the maquette’s exceptional freedom of form. In the present work, Moore integrates certain features of the natural world into an indoor site by opening up the reclining human figure, creating an intimacy and a fluidity that circumvent the closed off nature of an interior location. The use of flowing contours and undulating lines is reminiscent of rolling hills and valleys. Each hole plays a crucial role in the sculpture’s total composition, not only by offsetting the impermeability of the bronze material, but by capturing pieces of the surrounding space and incorporating them into the work. Moore outlined ‘The liking for holes came about from wanting to make space and three-dimensional form. For me the hole is not just a round hole. It is the penetration through from the front of the block to the back. This was for me a revelation, a great mental effort’ (H. Moore, quoted in D. Mitchinson (ed.), Henry Moore Sculpture with comments by the artist, London, 1981, p. 65). The use of holes in present work evokes Moore’s unparalleled capacity to break down the boundaries between a sculpture and its setting. The multiple openings within Reclining Figure create endless possibilities for viewpoints and vistas and, in turn, conceive infinite ways to view the work.