Contents Introduction
5
HOGLANDS
8
The home of a sculptor STUDIOS Top Studio
36
Etching Studio
40
Summer House
42
Bourne Maquette Studio
44
Yellow Brick Studio
48
Plastic Studio
50
Aisled Barn
52
SCULPTURE
Moore in 1967 with Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65.
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Reclining Figures
60
Families and Seated Figures
68
Mother and Child
72
Upright Motives
78
Organic Forms
82
Internal/External Forms
90
Chronology
94
List of Works
96
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Introduction Henry Moore (1898–1986) is widely recognised as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and arguably the most influential British sculptor of the modern era. His sculptures are prominently displayed in cities and museums around the world and their figurative and organic forms continue to attract ever-larger audiences and influence new generations of artists. In 1977 Moore established the Henry Moore Foundation, a charity to support the visual arts, safeguard his legacy and preserve the unique experience of visiting his home and studios in Perry Green. Moore and his wife, Irina, began welcoming visitors into their home when they first moved to Perry Green in 1940, as Moore understood that it was here that the most profound understanding of his work could be gained. The Foundation continues to conserve and present Moore’s work in the setting in which it was created. Moore gave the Foundation the grounds, buildings and contents of his 70-acre estate, and the majority of works then in his possession and those he had yet to make. With the addition of further gifts and acquisitions over the years, the Foundation’s collection now comprises over 15,000 works by Moore, including sculpture, drawings, prints, tapestries, textiles and studio materials – one of the most comprehensive singleartist collections in the world. Alongside this extensive art collection, the Foundation is also home to the Henry Moore Archive. Moore was particularly attentive to the documentation of his career. He collected his press cuttings from as early as 1920 and consistently photographed his works during their development. Housing over one million items, including publications, images, correspondence and other artefacts, the archive has become an unrivalled resource for researchers. The activities of the Foundation are not confined to Perry Green. A worldwide programme of exhibitions and
Moore drawing Textile Design in 1943. The work was later cut in two: the lower portion is in the collection of the Henry Moore Foundation but the upper half is lost. above
opposite
Two Piece Reclining Figure: Cut 1979–81
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conferences, the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, and grants to other arts organisations promote a love of sculpture amongst as wide a public as possible. Our international reach is a mirror of Moore’s own. During his lifetime Hoglands bustled with the comings and goings of vehicles carrying plasters away to the foundry for casting, works travelling to exhibitions around the world, and visitors arriving from all corners of the globe. Moore’s home and studios provide an invaluable insight into his life and work at Perry Green. Hoglands remained in the family until it was acquired by the Foundation in 2004. Following a major restoration project the ground-floor rooms were reinstated to appear as they had been in the early 1970s, a time when the Moores’ own alterations to the house were complete and their collections fully formed. It is thanks to significant loans from the Henry Moore Family Collection, of paintings, sculpture and artefacts, that such a reconstruction has been possible. The buildings here are important, but so too is the land in which they sit. Moore is often cited as describing the optimum setting for his sculpture as a landscape consisting of sky with fields of grass and a few trees. This was the landscape that he and Irina created around their home in Perry Green – a developing panorama in which colour was kept to a minimum but subtle changes of view were achieved through clever planting. Here, Moore could position his works to emphasise their sculptural qualities and, most importantly, their relationship to nature.
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The Henry Moore Archive in Perry Green, Hertfordshire. above
Moore’s etching studio with proofs of Reclining Figures: Man and Woman I 1975 pinned to the noticeboard. right
Moore in the Bourne Maquette Studio in 1976.
‘… all the time that I am doing this small model, in my mind it isn’t the small model that I’m doing, it’s the big sculpture that I intend to do.’
found objects, which he metamorphosed into new, often biomorphic forms evoking human figures and animals. Often Moore would apply plaster or plasticine to a found object to create a new form, or press an object into clay and pour plaster into its impression. Forms were then combined with others, scraped down or built up in a process of gradual refinement. Most maquettes were never developed into larger works and remain as fragments or partially developed ideas. Those that captured Moore’s imagination, however, underwent
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another transformation as they were enlarged first to an intermediate size and then to monumental proportions. Moore made most of his maquettes from plaster, a material that had become central to his practice by the 1950s. He liked the properties of plaster, which sets to the hardness of a soft stone and can be both built up and cut down, unlike clay, which hardens and dries to the point of inalterability. The plasters were worked with various tools, including cheese graters, nutmeg graters, spatulas and knives. Moore often coloured the surfaces
Sheep Study 1972
‘If I tapped on the window the sheep would stop and look, with that sheepish stare of curiosity. They would stand like that for up to five minutes, and I could get them to hold the same pose for longer by just tapping again on the window.’
Maquette for Reclining Mother and Child 1974 in the Bourne Maquette Studio.
of maquettes to lessen their ‘ghost-like’ appearance, using walnut crystals to create a warm, bone-like tint or green watercolour wash to imitate the effect of the bronze dust that settled on plasters sent to the foundry for casting. The Bourne Maquette Studio was used almost exclusively for the creation of sculpture, but it was also where Moore created some of his most famous drawings. In February 1972 the estate was abuzz with preparations for his major retrospective exhibition at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence. In search of a quiet space to work, he retreated to the Maquette Studio, overlooking a field where a local farmer grazed his sheep. As the sheep wandered past the window, he became fascinated and began to draw them, filling a whole sketchbook and later producing a series of etchings. He later recalled: ‘At first I saw them as rather shapeless balls of wool … Then I began to realise that underneath all that wool was a body, which moved in its own way, and that each sheep had its individual character.’
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Yellow Brick Studio As Moore’s fame and critical reputation increased, so did the scale of his sculpture. When the Top Studio could no longer contain his ambition, production moved to a purpose-built and multifunctional studio completed in 1958. Divided into separate areas, the Yellow Brick Studio served as a sculpture store, a showroom for potential buyers and a space for carving. Carving was Moore’s first passion but his approach evolved over the course of his career. Before the Second World War, carving was his primary method of creation and a largely solitary pursuit. He passionately believed in working directly with materials and allowing their natural properties to shape his work. In the post-war period he worked predominantly in bronze, but he still considered stone the most appropriate material for long-lasting public commissions. As the scale and number of his commissions grew, carving became a large-scale operation, often involving many hands and mechanical assistance. Now able to afford the materials he wanted in the scale he desired, he could let his imagination, rather than the block, direct his carving.
Moore’s new approach to carving was in part facilitated by his collaboration with the Italian stone merchants Henraux, who owned the quarries of Monte Altissimo near Carrara in Tuscany, where Michelangelo had sourced his marble. Moore first visited Henraux in 1957, having received a major commission from UNESCO for a monumental work to be sited outside their new headquarters, an impressive building incorporating travertine marble from Henraux. Moore wanted to use the same stone for the commission and investigated shipping blocks back to Perry Green, but the cost persuaded him to work at Henraux. He was so impressed by the quality of Henraux’s materials, facilities and technical support that from then on almost all of his stone carvings would be made in Italy before being returned to Perry Green for finishing in the Yellow Brick Studio over the winter. Moore also used the Yellow Brick Studio for wood carving. In 1976–78 he completed Reclining Figure: Holes, the last of a series of six reclining figures in elmwood. The elm was acquired from a merchant in Bishop’s Stortford and had to be carved in stages to reduce the development of cracks as the wood dried out. above
Carving tools.
Moore overseeing the cutting of marble blocks at Henraux in Querceta, Italy, in 1970. left
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Assistants Michel Muller (left) and Malcolm Woodward with Moore and Reclining Figure: Holes in progress in the Yellow Brick Studio in 1976. above
Moore in Italy, working on the travertine marble UNESCO Reclining Figure in 1958. far left
UNESCO Reclining Figure 1957–58 sited in front of the UNESCO building, Paris. The final work weighed 39,000 kg, was over 5 m long and 2.5 m high. It took fourteen months to complete. left
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Plastic Studio Moore once compared the growth of his work to that of a goldfish, able only to grow to its full size if given a large enough environment to live in. In 1963 he was working on the largest sculpture he had made to date, a two-piece reclining figure for the Lincoln Center in New York. As the sculpture was intended to be sited outdoors, Moore was determined that it should be made outdoors in natural light, but he realised that he would have to work through the winter to complete it. So he asked his builder and friend Frank Farnham to design a studio that could both accommodate the work and simulate the effect of working outdoors. Frank set to work erecting a large metal framework, over 15 m high, encased in translucent corrugated plastic and polythene sheeting. The construction fulfilled its purpose perfectly. From then on all of Moore’s large-scale enlargements were made in similar studios, which were built in various sizes as needed. The monumental sculptures were scaled up from maquettes via an intermediate working model. Moore
resisted mechanical methods of enlargement, preferring to rely on more DIY, complicated and invariably timeconsuming processes that required the help of assistants. Initially the coordinates of key points on the surface of a maquette were identified. Using a grid system, these points were then re-established at the desired scale with pointed sticks, bound together to create a spiky, three-dimensional armature. The armature was then draped in layers of scrim – a bandage-like fabric – before being covered with successive layers of wet plaster. Moore then used a range of tools to refine the form and surface texture. Once the initial idea had been refined at working model size, it could then be enlarged to monumental proportions using a similar process. Occasionally, giant cranes were needed to delicately extract the final work from the studio in sections and deposit them on a waiting lorry for delivery to the bronze foundry. Moore used plaster to create enlargements until 1968, when he began to experiment with polystyrene. He soon found that polystyrene made the enlargement process much
The Plastic Studio was built in 1963 to house the large plaster of Reclining Figure 1963–65, whose unique bronze cast was destined for the Lincoln Center in New York. By the mid-1980s the metal frame of the original Plastic Studio had become badly corroded and on Moore’s instructions Bernard Meadows, then acting director of the Foundation, had it taken down.
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Moore at work on a polystyrene in the Plastic Studio in 1961. right
Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae 1968–69 in progress in the Plastic Studio. An assistant builds up plaster over a wooden armature. below
quicker; it eliminated the need to make an armature, was much lighter and more manoeuvrable than plaster, and could be easily carved with a hot wire cutter. Texture could be added in a surface layer of plaster or by working on a plaster cast of the polystyrene. Occasionally Moore would leave the beaded texture of polystyrene visible so that it was imprinted in the bronze cast.
‘I realised that a big sculpture intended to live out-of-doors permanently is better if it is actually made out-of-doors. Light out-of-doors comes of course from the sky, it is an all-round light, it is not the directional light which you get in a room with windows.’ 51
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Aisled Barn In 1980 one of Moore’s more unusual purchases arrived in Perry Green: the dismantled framework of a sixteenth-century barn, which he had acquired from a local farm. Initially he was unsure what exactly he would do with it, but he was inspired by its huge timbered structure and was keen to preserve it. The barn was carefully reconstructed by local craftsmen and given a new roof, clapboard walls and brick base. Moore considered using the barn as a library or lecture theatre but he also recognised its potential as an exhibition space. In 1980 he commissioned the West Dean Tapestry Studio to create a group of tapestries based on his drawings, specifically for the barn’s timbered bays. Moore had always been interested in the scale of his work and the process of translating one medium into another, and had produced tapestries before. His first was made in 1950 by Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, and a further seven were made by the Scottish weavers of Brose Patrick Studio between 1971 and 1974. Moore had also previously collaborated with the weavers at West Dean on a series of eight tapestries produced between 1976 and 1980, which were exhibited to critical acclaim at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in the summer of 1980. The exhibition subsequently toured to America, Canada and New Zealand, cementing the reputation of the West Dean Tapestry Studio and Moore’s enthusiasm for the medium. Rather than developing new designs for the tapestries, Moore selected drawings he considered suitable for enlargement and interpretation. In 1986 he selected the subject of his final tapestry: a small sketch of huddled shelterers, made forty-five years earlier during the London Blitz. The tapestry Row of Sleepers, twelve times the size of the original drawing, The Aisled Barn houses tapestries based on Moore’s drawings, created by West Dean Tapestry Studio.
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demonstrates the skill and sensitivity with which the West Dean weavers translated Moore’s work. As the original drawing could not be exposed to light for too long, they worked from a facsimile and blown-up photographs, capturing Moore’s startling use of colour, the resistance of wax and the complex tonality of watercolour wash. Depending on their size and complexity, each tapestry could take several months to complete. The large Three Fates, for example, completed in 1983–84, was made over a period of eighteen months.
opposite
Three Fates 1983–84 Four weavers pulling the warp taught on a loom at West Dean Tapestry Studio in 1979. below left
Eva-Louise Svensson, the first director of the West Dean Tapestry Studio, working on a loom with Two Seated Women 1977 visible in the background.
Moore overseeing the installation of Three Seated Figures 1981 in the Aisled Barn. below
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List of Works Details of selected works illustrated in this book are listed below in the order in which they appear. All are included in the illustrated online catalogue raisonné of Moore’s works, which can be found on the Henry Moore Foundation website. Unless otherwise stated, all works are in the collection of the Henry Moore Foundation. Page 4 Two Piece Reclining Figure: Cut 1979–81 LH 758
Bronze, length 470 cm Acquired 1986 Page 10 Morning After the Blitz 1940 HMF 1558
Pencil, chalk, wax crayon, watercolour wash, pen and ink on paper, 635 × 559 mm Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford: The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Page 15 Treble Clef, Zigzag and Oval Safety Pins 1946–47 TEX 12.10
Serigraphy in two colours on rayon, printed by Ascher Acquired 1990
Page 43 Three Seated Figures and Fawkes Sleeping 1955–56 Page 100 from Heads, Figures and Ideas Notebook HMF 2794 verso
Pencil, pen and ink on cream lightweight wove paper, 225 × 174 mm Private collection, UK Page 47 Sheep Study 1972 Page 44 from Sheep Sketchbook HMF 3360
Ballpoint pen, felt-tipped pen on white medium-weight wove paper, 210 × 251 mm Waddington Galleries, London Page 54 Three Fates 1983–84 TAP 27
Cotton warp; linen and wool weft, 243 × 350 cm Acquired 1984 Page 56 Study for ‘Row of Sleepers’ 1941 Page 32 from Second Shelter Sketchbook HMF 1657
Pencil, wax crayon, coloured crayon, watercolour, wash on cream lightweight wove paper, 204 × 165 mm Gift of Irina Moore 1977
Piano 1947
Page 57 Row of Sleepers 1986
Serigraphy in five colours on rayon, printed by Ascher Acquired 1990
Cotton warp; wool, cotton and linen weft, 244 × 198 cm Acquired 1986
TEX 5.8
Barbed Wire c. 1946 TEX 4.3
Serigraphy in four colours on rayon, printed by Ascher Acquired 1990 Page 40 Elephant Skull, Plate XXV 1970 From the album Henry Moore: Elephant Skull CGM 138 [EC1]
Etching in black on Rives paper with a watermark designed by the artist, image 235 × 279 mm Gift of the artist 1977
TAP 30
Page 64 Two Piece Reclining Figure No. 2 1960
Page 81 Upright Motive No. 9 1979
Bronze, length 259 cm Gift of the artist 1977
Bronze, height 335.5 cm Acquired 1986
LH 458
Page 65 Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points 1969–70
Page 83 The Arch 1963/69
Bronze, length 365 cm Gift of the artist
Bronze, height 610 cm Acquired 1989
LH 606
Pages 66–67 Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped 1975
Page 69 Family Group 1948–49
Page 86 Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae 1968–69
Bronze, height 152 cm Acquired 1992
Bronze, length 710 cm Acquired 1989
LH 269
Bronze, height 358 cm Acquired 1987
LH 580
Pages 70–71 (and back cover) King and Queen 1952–53, cast 1985
Page 87 Locking Piece 1963–64
Bronze, height 164 cm Acquired 1991
Bronze, height 290 cm Acquired 1987
LH 350
LH 515
Page 73 Draped Reclining Mother and Baby 1983
Pages 88–89 Double Oval 1966
Bronze, length 265.5 cm Acquired 1986
Bronze, length 550 cm Acquired 1992
LH 822
LH 560
Page 75 Mother and Child: Block Seat 1983–84
Page 90 Maquette for Helmet Head No. 6 1975
Bronze, height 244 cm Acquired 1986
Plaster, height 11.3 cm Gift of the artist 1977
LH 838
Bronze, length 940 cm Acquired 1986
Bronze, height 570 cm Gift of the artist 1977
LH 627
Page 62 Draped Reclining Figure 1952–53
Page 79 Upright Motive No. 5 1955–56
Bronze, length 157.5 cm Gift of the artist 1977
Bronze, height 213.5 cm Gift of the artist 1977
LH 383
Page 63 Reclining Figure: Angles 1979
Page 80 Upright Motive No. 8 1955–56
Bronze, length 229.5 cm Acquired 1986
Bronze, height 207 cm Gift of the artist 1979
LH 675
Page 84 Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge 1976
LH 482a
Bronze, length 474 cm Acquired 1987
Page 77 Sheep Piece 1971–72
LH 336
LH 503b
LH 655
Page 61 (and front cover) Large Reclining Figure 1984 LH 192b
LH 586a
LH 388
LH 650
Page 91 Large Upright Internal/External Form 1981–82 LH 297a
Bronze, height 673 cm Acquired 1986 Page 92 Large Totem Head 1968 LH 577 Bronze, height 249 cm Acquired 1987 Page 93 Large Figure in a Shelter 1985–86 LH 652c
Bronze, height 762 cm Acquired 1987
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