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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

1898-1986
LARGE FOUR PIECE RECLINING FIGURE

length: 402cm., 158 1/2 in.

Executed in 1972-73 and cast in bronze in an edition of 7 plus 1 artist's proof.

inscribed Moore, numbered 6/7 and with the foundry mark H. NOACK, BERLIN

bronze

PROVENANCE

Marlborough Fine Art, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1974

LITERATURE

Alan Bowness (ed.), Henry Moore. Sculpture and Drawings, London, 1977, vol. 4, no. 629, illustration of another cast p. 62 and pls. 184-187
Stephen Spender, Henry Moore, Sculptures in Landscape, London, 1978, no. 77, colour illustration of another cast p. 124
Josep Iglesias del Marquet, Henry Moore y el inquietante infinito, Barcelona, 1979, no. 78, colour illustration of another cast
David Mitchinson (ed.), Henry Moore Sculpture, London, 1981, nos. 526 & 527, colour illustration of another cast pp. 246-247
Henry Moore & John Hedgecoe, Henry Moore. My Ideas, Inspiration and Life as an Artist, London, 1986, no. 48, illustration of another cast p. 206
John Hedgecoe, A Monumental Vision. The Sculpture of Henry Moore, London, 1998, no. 554, illustration of another cast pp. 234 & 178-179
David Mitchinson, Celebrating Moore, London, 1998, no. 231, colour illustration of the cast belonging to The Henry Moore Foundation p. 303

NOTE

The subject of the reclining figure, explored in this monumental work, is probably the single most iconic image of Henry Moore's ~uvre. Initially inspired by Mexican sculpture, this subject recurs throughout the artist's career, ranging from organic forms to near-abstract, geometric ones, and including several monumental versions. Writing about Moore's large outdoor sculptures, David Sylvester commented: 'They are made to look as if they themselves had been shaped by nature's energy. They seem to be weathered, eroded, tunnelled-into by the action of wind and water. The first time Moore published his thoughts about art, he wrote that the sculpture which moved him most gave out 'something of the energy and power of great mountains' [...] Moore's reclining figures are not supine; they prop themselves up, are potentially active. Hence the affinity with river-gods; the idea is not simply that of a body subjected to the flow of nature's forces but of one in which those forces are harnessed' (D. Sylvester, Henry Moore, New York & London, 1968, p. 5).

Moore first started making sculptures consisting of more than one piece in the 1930s. According to the artist's own account, it was while working on another large outdoor piece that he 'realised what an advantage a separate two-piece composition could have in relating figures to landscape. Knees and breasts are mountains. Once these two parts become separated you don't expect it to be a naturalistic figure; therefore, you can more justifiably make it like a landscape or a rock. If it is a single figure, you can guess what it's going to be like. If it is in two pieces, there's a bigger surprise, you have more unexpected views; therefore the special advantage over painting -- of having the possibility of many different views -- is more fully exploited' (quoted in Carlton Lake, Atlantic Monthly, vol. 209, no. 1, Boston, January 1962, p. 44). In splitting a reclining figure into four separate forms, Moore was able to explore multiple relationships between different elements of the figure, as well as those between man and environment.

John Read wrote about the present work: 'The suave bumps and curves of this sculpture tempt the hand to offer a caress. It is an appeal to our sense of touch and all that implies. Though each section is independent, together they generate a communal life. It has become a nest of sculptures, but conceived on a gigantic scale. That feeling of touching is very important as one becomes aware of the points of contact, where one form rests upon another [...] The Large Four Piece Reclining Figure is one of Moore's most abstract inventions and almost Surrealistic in its effects. There is a wonderful tension between the tangible and the intangible [...] On a full scale, with the impressive dimensions that this work has, the merely decorative becomes something else and is very powerful, elemental and overwhelming' (J. Read, in D. Mitchinson, op. cit., 1998, pp. 303-304).

Other examples of the Large Four Piece Reclining Figure are in major public collections including Harvard University, Cambridge, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, Yamanashi Prefecture Museum of Art, Kofu and Union Bank of Switzerland, Ermatingen.