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Lot Essay
While the human figure remained a central focus of Henry Moore’s oeuvre throughout his career, he frequently turned to the study of various animals—from sheep and dogs, to snakes and tigers—to discover an alternative, and at times more freeing, subject. “Animals for me have characters similar to many human beings,” the artist explained, “though sometimes I feel freer when working on an animal idea because I can invent an imaginary animal. I would find it less natural to try to alter a human” (quoted in D. Mitchinson, Celebrating Moore: Works from the Collection of The Henry Moore Foundation, London, 1998, p. 232). Created in 1969, Moore’s complex, asymmetrical sculpture Animal Form offers an abstracted vision of an unknown animal, distilled down to its essential rhythms and architecture. The mysterious creature appears to stand on four legs, the flowing shapes within its horizontal form suggesting haunches, a rolling back and hulking shoulders leading to a powerful, rounded head.
Speaking to the British ballet critic, Arnold Haskell in 1932, Moore described the importance of the natural world to his artistic process: “I have studied the principles of organic growth in the bones and shells at the Natural History Museum, and have found new form and rhythm that apply to sculpture” (quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Aldershot, 2002, p. 189). Throughout his life, Moore repeatedly drew inspiration from objects he found in nature—his studio was filled with a vast array of such material, with rows of fossils and flint, fragments of driftwood and small animal bones filling the cabinets that lined the walls of his workspace. Each piece was kept by the artist as a result of the visual intrigue he detected in its form and his fascination with the ways in which the material had been molded and shaped, either by the elements or evolution. He studied and sketched bones, shells, tree-roots and other organic material, rotating their forms and examining them from a multitude of angles, capturing the manner in which the profile and character of a given object were dramatically altered when viewed from above, head-on, side-ways or from beneath.
With its undulating profile and soft, rounded forms, Animal Form recalls not only the influence of these found, natural materials, but also the artist’s contemporaneous studies of an elephant skull, which he developed into a series of delicately worked etchings in 1969. Moore accentuated the bone-like quality of the sculpture by choosing to carve Animal Form directly into travertine, the pale, cream tones and rough texture of the material echoing the naturally weathered objects he collected. The artist explained the appeal of working with travertine in 1981, describing it as “ruddy, powerful, strong. You feel you don’t have to handle it with kid gloves” (quoted in ibid., p. 223). This fibrous, dynamically veined material had a long tradition within the history of art and architecture, featuring in the prestigious buildings of the ancient Romans, including the Colosseum, as well as the sculptures of Michelangelo in the sixteenth century. Moore had initially been drawn to travertine in the 1920s, and it reappeared in his work on a number of occasions through his career, most notably in his commission for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris (UNESCO Reclining Figure; Bowness, no. 416) in the late 1950s.
The present sculpture was carved in the Henraux Quarries at Querceta in Italy, just north of Pisa, which Moore had discovered during his preparations for the UNESCO commission. Here, he worked in-situ on Animal Form alongside a monumental version of the sculpture, also carved in travertine (Bowness, no. 617; Private collection), arriving at the quarry each morning and spending several hours working on the sculptures before leaving in the early afternoon to accompany his family to the beach. A bronze edition of 9+1 was completed slightly later in 1971, the sinuous forms of the sculpture acquiring a more fluid appearance through its translation into the reflective, polished finish of the patinated bronze.
Speaking to the British ballet critic, Arnold Haskell in 1932, Moore described the importance of the natural world to his artistic process: “I have studied the principles of organic growth in the bones and shells at the Natural History Museum, and have found new form and rhythm that apply to sculpture” (quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Aldershot, 2002, p. 189). Throughout his life, Moore repeatedly drew inspiration from objects he found in nature—his studio was filled with a vast array of such material, with rows of fossils and flint, fragments of driftwood and small animal bones filling the cabinets that lined the walls of his workspace. Each piece was kept by the artist as a result of the visual intrigue he detected in its form and his fascination with the ways in which the material had been molded and shaped, either by the elements or evolution. He studied and sketched bones, shells, tree-roots and other organic material, rotating their forms and examining them from a multitude of angles, capturing the manner in which the profile and character of a given object were dramatically altered when viewed from above, head-on, side-ways or from beneath.
With its undulating profile and soft, rounded forms, Animal Form recalls not only the influence of these found, natural materials, but also the artist’s contemporaneous studies of an elephant skull, which he developed into a series of delicately worked etchings in 1969. Moore accentuated the bone-like quality of the sculpture by choosing to carve Animal Form directly into travertine, the pale, cream tones and rough texture of the material echoing the naturally weathered objects he collected. The artist explained the appeal of working with travertine in 1981, describing it as “ruddy, powerful, strong. You feel you don’t have to handle it with kid gloves” (quoted in ibid., p. 223). This fibrous, dynamically veined material had a long tradition within the history of art and architecture, featuring in the prestigious buildings of the ancient Romans, including the Colosseum, as well as the sculptures of Michelangelo in the sixteenth century. Moore had initially been drawn to travertine in the 1920s, and it reappeared in his work on a number of occasions through his career, most notably in his commission for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris (UNESCO Reclining Figure; Bowness, no. 416) in the late 1950s.
The present sculpture was carved in the Henraux Quarries at Querceta in Italy, just north of Pisa, which Moore had discovered during his preparations for the UNESCO commission. Here, he worked in-situ on Animal Form alongside a monumental version of the sculpture, also carved in travertine (Bowness, no. 617; Private collection), arriving at the quarry each morning and spending several hours working on the sculptures before leaving in the early afternoon to accompany his family to the beach. A bronze edition of 9+1 was completed slightly later in 1971, the sinuous forms of the sculpture acquiring a more fluid appearance through its translation into the reflective, polished finish of the patinated bronze.