Henry Moore OM, CH

Reclining Figure

1939, cast 1959

© The Henry Moore Foundation. All Rights Reserved

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Not on display

Artist: Henry Moore OM, CH 1898–1986
Medium: Bronze on wooden base
Dimensions: Object: 137 × 254 × 86 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1960
Reference: T00387

Display caption

In the late 1930s Moore made six small Reclining Figures in lead. This is one of eight bronze casts after one of those lead originals. These sculptures relate to drawings which show that their shapes were suggested by bone or even rock formations. The relationship between body and land was of particular interest to Moore at this time since he had just completed a large 'Recumbent Figure' in green Hornton stone for the architect Serge Chermayeff's garden at Halland in Sussex. Stone could be carved to suggest cavities created by weathering; however, the medium of lead produced a different emphasis. The lead figures remind the viewer of the angular, skeletal framework underlying the human body.

Gallery label, September 2004

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