Upright Internal/External Form: Flower

Details

HENRY MOORE (1898-1986)
Upright Internal/External Form: Flower
signed and numbered 'Moore 3/6' (on the left side of the base)
bronze with brown patina
height (excluding base): 25 5/8 in. (65 cm.)
Conceived in 1951 and cast in bronze in 1965, in a numbered edition of 6

Provenance

Private collection.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, 8 May 2003, lot 229.
William Rubin, New York.
Private collection, New York, by descent from the above.
David Lévy & Associés, Brussels & Paris.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

A. Bowness (ed.), Henry Moore, Complete Sculpture, vol. II, Sculpture and Drawings 1949-1954, London, 1968, no. 293b, p. xxv (another cast illustrated).
R. Melville, Henry Moore, Sculpture and Drawings 1921-1969, London, 1970, no. 422, p. 355 (another cast illustrated).
D. Mitchinson (ed.), Henry Moore Sculpture with comments by the artist, London & Basingstoke, 1981, no. 239, p. 118 (another cast illustrated pp. 118 & 119).
A. Bowness, Henry Moore, Complete Sculpture, vol. II, Sculpture 1949-1954, London, 1986, no. 293b (another cast illustrated).
C. Lichtenstern, Henry Moore, Work-Theory-Impact, London, 2008, pp. 264-265, 271, 302, 376, 414 (illustrated fig. 302, p. 264).

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

During the early 1950s, Moore worked on a series of sculptures that explored the theme of internal/external forms. These works reaffirmed Moore's ability to produce robust, seemingly abstract sculpture that was imbued with great tenderness and humanity. Moore's inspiration came from shapes found in nature. "The whole of nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form, and it surprises me when artists try to escape from this" (Henry Moore, quoted in D. Mitchinson, op. cit., p. 246). Moore explained that the impetus for the present work was "a sort of embryo being protected by an outer form, a mother and child idea, of the stamen in a flower, that is, something young and growing being protected by an outer shell" (quoted in P. James, ed., Henry Moore on Sculpture, London, 1966, p. 247). Moore strove to give the impression that the forms had grown organically or had been created from a pressure within as he said: "For me a work must have a vitality of its own...a pent-up energy, an intense life of its own, independent of the object it may represent" (quoted in Henry Moore, Carvings, Bronzes, New York, 1970, p. 77).

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