Henry Moore

Reclining Figure: Piranesi Background II (hand signed etching)

1979

Etching on paper. Hand signed lower right by Henry Moore. Hand numbered 49/50 lower left. Sheet size 18.5 x 15 inches. Image size 8.625 x 6.5 inches. Frame size: approx. 24 x 2...

Etching on Rives paper with the artist's watermark. Hand signed lower right by Henry Moore. Hand numbered 26/50 lower left (there were also 13 artist's proofs). Sheet size 20 x 14...

Etching and aquatint on paper. Hand signed and titled lower front by Roy Fairchild-Woodard. Hand numbered 126/385 lower left. Artwork size 29 x 22 inches. Artwork is in excellent...

Color lithograph with photolithography. Hand signed lower right by Rafael Canogar. Hand numbered 62/75 lower left corner. Artwork size 22 x 29 inches. Frame size 30 x 37 inches. ...

Henry Spencer Moore (1898 – 1986) Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a coal miner. He became well-known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom later endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts. After the Great War, Moore received an ex-serviceman's grant to continue his education and in 1919 he became a student at the Leeds School of Art (now Leeds College of Art), which set up a sculpture studio especially for him. At the college, he met Barbara Hepworth, a fellow student who would also become a well-known British sculptor, and began a friendship and gentle professional rivalry that lasted for many years. In Leeds, Moore also had access to the modernist works in the collection of Sir Michael Sadler, the University Vice-Chancellor, which had a pronounced effect on his development. In 1921, Moore won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London, along with Hepworth and other Yorkshire contemporaries. While in London, Moore extended his knowledge of primitive art and sculpture, studying the ethnographic collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. Moore's familiarity with primitivism and the influence of sculptors such as Constantin Brâncuși, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Frank Dobson led him to the method of direct carving, in which imperfections in the material and marks left by tools became part of the finished sculpture. After Moore married, the couple moved to a studio in Hampstead at 11a Parkhill Road NW3, joining a small colony of avant-garde artists who were taking root there. Shortly afterward, Hepworth and her second husband Ben Nicholson moved into a studio around the corner from Moore, while Naum Gabo, Roland Penrose, Cecil Stephenson and the art critic Herbert Read also lived in the area (Read referred to the area as "a nest of gentle artists"). This led to a rapid cross-fertilization of ideas that Read would publicise, helping to raise Moore's public profile. The area was also a stopping-off point for many refugee artists, architects and designers from continental Europe en route to America—some of whom would later commission works from Moore. In 1932, after six year's teaching at the Royal College, Moore took up a post as the Head of the Department of Sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art. Artistically, Moore, Hepworth and other members of The Seven and Five Society would develop steadily more abstract work, partly influenced by their frequent trips to Paris and their contact with leading progressive artists, notably Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Jean Arp and Alberto Giacometti. Moore flirted with Surrealism, joining Paul Nash's modern art movement "Unit One", in 1933. In 1934, Moore visited Spain; he visited the cave of Altamira (which he described as the "Royal Academy of Cave Painting"), Madrid, Toledo and Pamplona. Moore made his first visit to America when a retrospective exhibition of his work opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[28] Before the war, Moore had been approached by educator Henry Morris, who was trying to reform education with his concept of the Village College. Morris had engaged Walter Gropius as the architect for his second village college at Impington near Cambridge, and he wanted Moore to design a major public sculpture for the site. In the 1950s, Moore began to receive increasingly significant commissions. He exhibited Reclining Figure: Festival at the Festival of Britain in 1951, and in 1958 produced a large marble reclining figure for the UNESCO building in Paris. With many more public works of art, the scale of Moore's sculptures grew significantly and he started to employ an increasing number of assistants to work with him at Much Hadham, including Anthony Caro and Richard Wentworth. Moore produced at least three significant examples of architectural sculpture during his career. In 1928, despite his own self-described extreme reservations, he accepted his first public commission for West Wind for the London Underground Building at 55 Broadway in London, joining the company of Jacob Epstein and Eric Gill..At an introductory speech in New York City for an exhibition of one of the finest modernist sculptors, Alberto Giacometti, Sartre spoke of The beginning and the end of history...

An original lithograph in six colors by Henry Moore, created in 1978. It is hand signed and numbered in Roman numerals from an edition of 15 proofs, aside the edition of 50 on Rives...

This exquisite lithograph by Henry Moore (1898–1986), titled Reclining Figure Interior Setting I, from the album XXe siecle, Nouvelle serie, XXXIXe Annee, No. 49, Decembre 1977, originates from the 1977 edition published by Societe Internationale d'Art XXe siecle, Paris, and printed by Curwen Prints Ltd, London, 1977. Reclining Figure Interior Setting I reflects Moore’s masterful synthesis of form and space, capturing his lifelong exploration of the reclining human figure as a symbol of harmony between nature, body, and landscape. Executed as a lithograph on velin paper, this work measures 9.75 x 12.5 inches (24.77 x 31.75 cm). Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. The edition exemplifies the superb craftsmanship of Curwen Prints Ltd, London. Artwork Details: Artist: Henry Moore (1898–1986) Title: Reclining Figure Interior Setting I, from the album XXe siecle, Nouvelle serie, XXXIXe Annee, No. 49, Decembre 1977 Medium: Lithograph on velin paper Dimensions: 9.75 x 12.5 inches (24.77 x 31.75 cm) Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued Date: 1977 Publisher: Societe Internationale d'Art XXe siecle, Paris Printer: Curwen Prints Ltd, London Catalogue raisonne reference: Moore, Henry, et al. Henry Moore, Catalogue of Graphic Work. Gerald Cramer, 1986, illustration 458 Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium Provenance: From the album XXe siecle, Nouvelle serie, XXXIXe Annee, No. 49, Decembre 1977, published by Societe Internationale d'Art XXe siecle, Paris About the Publication: Gualtieri di San Lazzaro's XXe Siecle (Twentieth Century) was one of the most influential art journals of the modern era, founded in Paris in 1938 as a platform for the greatest painters, sculptors, and writers of the 20th century. San Lazzaro, a visionary editor, critic, and champion of modernism, believed that art and literature should coexist as expressions of a shared human imagination. Under his direction, XXe Siecle became a cultural bridge between Europe and the wider world, publishing special issues devoted to leading figures such as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque, Calder, Miro, Kandinsky, and Leger. Each edition combined essays by renowned critics and poets with original lithographs printed by the foremost ateliers of Paris and London, including Mourlot, Arte, and Curwen, creating a uniquely rich dialogue between text and image. Through XXe Siecle, San Lazzaro preserved the creative spirit of the avant-garde during and after World War II, championing freedom of expression and the evolution of abstraction, Surrealism, and modern thought. Over nearly four decades, the journal shaped international taste and defined the intellectual landscape of postwar art publishing. Today, XXe Siecle remains celebrated for its extraordinary synthesis of art, literature, and design, an enduring testament to Gualtieri di San Lazzaro's belief that the visual arts are the soul of the modern age. About the Artist: Henry Moore (1898–1986) was a British sculptor, draftsman, and modernist pioneer whose monumental bronzes and organic abstractions revolutionized 20th-century sculpture and made him one of the most influential artists of his time. Renowned for his reclining figures, mother-and-child compositions, and pierced biomorphic forms inspired by nature, Moore transformed traditional carving into a universal language of rhythm, balance, and humanity. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, he studied at the Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, absorbing the influences of classical sculpture, African and Pre-Columbian art, and the radical innovations of the European avant-garde. Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Cubist fragmentation of form, Joan Miro’s lyrical biomorphism, Wassily Kandinsky’s spiritual abstraction, and Constantin Brancusi’s purity of shape, Moore developed a style rooted in the harmony between mass and void, structure and space. During the interwar years, he became part of an international circle that included Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray—artists who, like Moore, expanded art’s boundaries through abstraction, surrealism, and conceptual experimentation. Like Calder, Moore explored balance and movement; like Giacometti, he sought the spiritual essence of humanity; and like Dali and Duchamp, he challenged perception and redefined modern form. His sculptures, carved in stone or cast in bronze, evoke both ancient and modern sensibilities—forms that appear to breathe with natural vitality while engaging directly with their surrounding landscapes. Moore’s “Shelter Drawings” (1940–41), created during the London Blitz, revealed his deep empathy for the human condition, marking a pivotal moment in his exploration of resilience and vulnerability. By the mid-20th century, Moore’s monumental bronzes had become landmarks around the world, from the Lincoln Center in New York to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, embodying timeless symbols of endurance, renewal, and unity. His synthesis of organic abstraction and humanism influenced generations of sculptors including Barbara Hepworth, Isamu Noguchi, Eduardo Paolozzi, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, and Rachel Whiteread. Like Kandinsky and Miro, he believed abstraction could transcend culture and time, while like Duchamp and Man Ray, he embraced experimentation as a pathway to new truths. Moore’s works, housed in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, continue to define the landscape of modern sculpture for their elegance, power, and emotional depth. Standing alongside Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, Henry Moore remains a cornerstone of modern art—a sculptor whose vision united nature, form, and spirit into a universal language of beauty and meaning. His highest auction record was achieved by Reclining Figure: Festival (1951), which sold for $33.1 million USD at Christie’s, London, on June 30, 2016, reaffirming Henry Moore’s enduring legacy as one of the most visionary, influential, and collectible sculptors in the history of modern art. Henry Moore Reclining Figure...

Reclining nude is a beautiful etching realized during the XX century. In very good condition. Illegible signature. Edition of only 25 copies.