Ideas for Wood Carving: Three Reclining Figures

Details

Henry Moore, O.M., C.H. (1898-1986)
Ideas for Wood Carving: Three Reclining Figures
signed and dated 'Moore/42' (lower right)
pencil, ink, charcoal, coloured crayon and watercolour on paper
23 x 17 7/8 in. (58.3 x 45.5 cm.)
Executed in 1942.

Provenance

with Leicester Galleries, London.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 26 April 1961, lot 20, where purchased by Marlborough Fine Art, London.
Mrs David Crackanthorpe, her sale; Sotheby’s, London, 3 April 1963, lot 145, where purchased by Piccadilly Gallery, London.
Alice Harris, USA.
Acquired by the grandfather of the previous owner circa 1986.
Their sale; Sotheby's, London, 24 June 2014, lot 213, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

K. Clark, Henry Moore Drawings, London, 1974, p. 322, no. 185, illustrated, as 'Ideas for Sculpture'.
Exhibition catalogue, Henry Moore Bronzen und Graphik, Salzburg, Galerie Welz, 1994, no. 29, illustrated.
A. Garrould (ed.), Henry Moore, Complete Drawings: 1940-49, London, 2001, pp. 166-167, no. AG 42.186, HMF 2075, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Leicester Galleries, Exhibitions of Living Irish Art: new sculpture and drawings by Henry Moore, October 1946, no. 73, as 'Reclining figure (drawing for elm sculpture, No. 1)'.
London, Brook Street Gallery, Henry Moore: Watercolours, drawings, lithographs, April 1969, no. 8, as 'Project for Sculpture'.
London, Royal Academy, Henry Moore, September - December 1988, ex-catalogue.
Salzburg, Galerie Welz, Henry Moore Bronzen und Graphik, July - September 1994, no. 29.

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.

Brought to you by

Angus Granlund

agranlund@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3240

Lot Essay

'The construction of the human figure is much more difficult to get right than an animal or a tree. It isn’t just academic training, it really is a deep, strong fundamental struggle when you are drawing the human figure.'
- Henry Moore

Henry Moore experienced anxiety and uncertainty at the outbreak of war in September 1939. Stone and wood, the raw materials for his sculpture, would soon be difficult to acquire. There was no point in starting new carvings of any size. He turned to drawings, albeit with a certain amount of trepidation. But his mind was still drawn to sculpture and he continued to conceive ideas for future works during this period. As Moore himself explained, ‘My drawings are done mainly as a help towards making sculpture, as a means of generating ideas for sculpture, tapping oneself for the initial idea; and as a way of sorting out ideas and developing them’ (see A. Wilkinson, ‘Drawings for Sculpture’, exhibition catalogue, Henry Moore, Drawings Watercolours Gouaches, Basel, Galerie Beyeler, 1970, p. 20).

The theme of the reclining figure appears at every phase of Henry Moore’s career and his exploration of the motif was to lead him to increasing abstraction as he turned towards experimentation with the elements of design. He would continually rework the motif in both his drawings and his sculptural works, repositioning, dividing and abstracting the body so that only its elemental nature remained intact.

The uppermost figure depicted in Ideas for Wood Carving: Three Reclining Figures, relates to Moore’s monumental elmwood sculpture Reclining Figure, 1945-46.

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