Henry Moore OM, CH, RBA, RBS (1898-1986)
“Head” (1957/58)
Signed, black crayon, 39cm by 30cm

Provenance: Given to Mervyn Levy by the artist following the publication of his book "Drawing and Sculpture" in 1970 according to inscription verso
Clark Art, Cheshire

Henry Moore is perhaps the most celebrated sculptor of the 20^th century, and his monumental semi-abstract sculptures had a profound effect on the course of British Art. Achieving global recognition in his lifetime, Moore’s distinctive brand of modernism caused a British sculptural Renaissance.

Moore was born in Castleford, a small mining town in West Yorkshire, in 1898. After initially training as a teacher, he served in the Army during the First World War. However, after being injured he was awarded a rehabilitation grant that afforded him the opportunity to study at Leeds School of Art before going on to the Royal College of Art in London.

Whilst studying in London Moore became absorbed with so called ‘Primitive Art’ in the British Museum. Shying away from the Classical ideal, which was all-pervasive in Western Art, he instead drew inspiration from the imagery of the ancient world, and from African and Oceanic cultures which idolised the female/maternal figure.

Moore began sculpting simple, powerful forms redolent of ancient objects, with a distinct focus on female figures and family groups. Close study of the natural world led Moore to create his abstracted figures, at once both alien and familiar, using organic shapes taken from a line of hills, a massive rock formation, or a sea-smoothed pebble on a beach. The abstraction of organic forms developed in parallel in the work of Barbara Hepworth, whom Moore had known since their days at Leeds School of Art.

Having come under the influence of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the 1930s, his work had taken on a darker edge with a greater degree of abstraction and more distorted forms. This was exacerbated by the outbreak of the Second World War, during which Moore became an official war artist and moved away from his characteristic female and maternal images as his primary focus. Moore created a powerful series of drawings of huddled figures in underground shelters, before returning to his hometown of Castleford to visit the colliery in which his father had worked to depict miners toiling at the coal face. These works were filled with a pathos and pain, which he later expressed in austere pieces such as his Helmet series.

After WWII, Moore became very focussed on Helmet Head and Heads. During the 1950's he explored many varations on this subject (see lot 573).