- Artist
- Henry Moore OM, CH 1898–1986
- Medium
- Watercolour, gouache, ink and chalk on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 279 × 381 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
- Reference
- N05706
Catalogue entry
N05706 GREY TUBE SHELTER 1940
Inscr. ‘Moore 40’ b.r.
Pen, chalk, wash and gouache, 11×15 (28×38).
Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
Exh: National War Pictures, National Gallery, 1943; British Council, Contemporary British Art, Cairo and Algiers, 1945 (42); Wakefield and Manchester, April–July 1949 (92).
Repr: Read, 1944, pl.172b.
N05706–N05713 are examples of Moore's drawings of Londoners sheltering from the air raids of 1940–2, mainly in underground stations, done in his capacity as an Official War Artist. His first studies, which were begun before the official commission (see letter reprinted in Sweeney, 1946, pp.67–8), were drawn from memory in the two Shelter Sketch-Books now in the possession of Sir Kenneth Clark and Mrs Irina Moore (a selection from these was published by Editions Poetry London, 1944); some of the drawings of shelterers are juxtaposed with sketches of sculptural figures. The artist has said that the pervading theme of the shelter drawings was the group sense of communion in apprehension; a hint of this mood was retained in the sculptured group ‘Three Standing Figures’ of 1947–8, now in Battersea Park (repr. Read and Sylvester, I, 1957, p.166) (talk recorded for British Council, 1955). The depiction of drapery in these drawings was taken up again on the Time-Life Building ‘Reclining Figure’ of 1952–3 (repr. Read, 11, 1955, No.62).
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II
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