Sculptor, draughtsman and printmaker.  Henry Moore was born in Castlefield, the seventh of eight children of a coalminer.  He studied at Leeds College of Art and at the Royal College of Art. Whilst in London he visited the British Museum and became interested in non-European cultures.  Moore exhibited at the International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936, but although he experimented with abstraction during the 1930s, his abiding concern had been with the human figure.  During the Second World War Moore was commissioned as an official war artist and drew scenes of Londoners sheltering in the underground during the Blitz.  In 1948 his work was shown in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, from then on Moore was regarded as an artist of international stature who executed a great many public commissions world, including a Reclining Figure for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.  His work has been shown worldwide.  In 1977 he established the Henry Moore Foundation to promote sculpture within  Britain.  He died on 31 August 1986.

Reclining Figure: Hand 1970
Bronze
Length 221 cm
On loan from the Henry Moore Foundation

The original inspiration for this work came from bits of flint and bone Moore found in the garden of his home in Hertfordshire. Previously a pig farm, Hoglands was a rich source of found objects.  Moore made a maquette which he could hold in the palm of his hand out of the flint and bone which he then worked in plasticine and cast in plaster.  This was then scaled up and cast in bronze.  The result is a sculpture which derives from organic material and ultimately relates to the land in a much broader sense.