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A short biography Spencer Moore was born on the 30th of July 1898 in the small coalmining-town (villeminière) of Castleford, Yorkshire. He was the seventh of the eight children of Raymond Spencer Moore, and his wife Mary Baker. His father, a miner, was an intelligent man who had read and studied widely. He was determined that all his children should be well-educated, and that no son of his would work down the pit(la mine). Henry Moore went to elementary schools in his home town, and then in 1910 won a scholarship (bourse d’études) to Castleford Secondary school. During these years Moore began carving in wood and modelling clay, and he consciously decided that he would become a sculptor. Moore’s art teacher Miss Alice Gostick influenced him considerably. Moore was determined to sit the examinations for a scholarship to the local art college but his father thought he should follow an elder sibling, D.H.Lawrence, another miner’s son, into the teaching profession. Moore began teaching in the same school he had attended in Castleford. The Great War came in the summer that Moore left school. At the age of eighteen, in 1917, Moore was enlisted in the Civil Service Rifles. Shortly after he was sent to France, where he and his regiment took part in the battle of Cambrai. Here he suffered a gas attack and was sent back to spend two months in hospital. Moore became the first ever student of sculpture at Leeds School of Art in September 1919. He had the good fortune to know Sir Michael Sadler, a great collector-connoisseur who had bought works by Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and had examples of African Negro carving well in advance of their general acceptance in England. Moore admitted his career as an artist began with the discovery of Roger Fry’s ‘Vision and Design’ that contained two influential essays, one on Negro sculpture and the other one on Ancient American art. Moore studied in London from 1921 to 1924. He visited museums and galleries and studied the collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he observed intently the collection of Mexican sculpture. Moore’s sculptures in the twenties were perfect examples of deeply romantic English Lyricism with a great feeling for landscape and natural forms. Moore rejected tradition, choosing for his inspiration not the classical figures of the Renaissance and the Graeco-Roman tradition but primitive types of sculptures. His early sculpture were not understood, and revolutionary as it was, it was condemned by reviewers. In 1925 he went to Italy for six months to study the Old Masters, visiting Rome, Florence, Ravenna and Venice. By 1925 Moore had assimilated the main influences that were to determine the future course of his creativity. QUESTION 1 : WhichhistoricaleventchangedMoore’searlyadult life? QUESTION 2 : In whichmuseumdid Moore go to study art ? Which sculptures influenced Moore ?
Death of the Suitors A chalkdrawing: un dessin à la craie Woundedcombattants: des combattants blessés Fighterslyingdeadafter the battle Reddish areas suggestblood A bloodshed: un bain de sang A massacre = A slaughter Swords: des épées Spears: des lances A limited range of colors : une palette restreinte Hatchings: des hachures A stroke of a pencil : un coup de crayon A criss-cross of lines : un entrecroisement de lignes Monstruous A grim, bleak, deathlyatmosphere : une atmosphère lugubre. QUESTION 3: Is Moore more interested in the faces of the characters or in the positions of the bodies here ?
Row of Sleepers The square patterns used for the composition are still visible. White highlights(des réhauts blanc) suggestthe volumes of the sleepers’ bodies. The bodies are treated in curvilinearlines. The roundness of the figures evokemotherly protection. Compared to the broadshouldersand large chests of the women, the heads are verysmall. Moore breaks awaywith the conventions of Greek art since the figures are disproportionate. The characters are not individualised: Moore tries to depictuniversal figures. The sketch (ébauche) representslife in the shelters(abris) duringthe Blitz (the bombing of London by Germanairplanes). QUESTION 4: Which part of the body isstressed ? QUESTION 5 : Whydoes Moore place a youngchild in the foreground ?
DrapedSeatedWoman QUESTION 6: Whichof thesefeatureswaspresent in the shelterdrawing ? (More than one possible answer) The disproportion between the chest and the head The breasts The angularthinnose The broadshoulder and squarychest The horizontal draperies The roundness of the shapes The angular line of the knees
Family Group, 1944 Mind the use of prepositions: A man and a woman are seated ON a bench. The motheris holding a youngchild ON HER LAP. The otherchildis standing BETWEEN the legs of hisfather. The father’sleft hand isgentlyresting ON hisson’sshoulder. The mother’sarms are folded AROUND the child’sbelly. AVEC LES VERBES EXPRIMANT LE REGARD ON UTILISE : The youngerchildislooking AT the book. Hisbrotherisgazing BACKWARDS. The fatherisgazing UP TOWARDS the sky. The motheriswatchinghersomething standing IN FRONT OF her.
Family Group, 1948 QUESTION 7 Whichof thesefeatures are mostlikely to bring an impression of harmony ? The flat pedestal The horizontal linesthat stand for the folds of the drapery The round, buxomchest of the parents The use of bronze The position of the child The green patina on the bronze surface The entwinedlimbs(membres entrelacés) of the figures The stylized faces The bench (le banc) that supports the figures
Moore’s inspiration EXPRESSION DU GOÛT ET DE L’INTERET: Moore wasenthralled by time-wornobjects. He wasenthusiastic about findingbones or drift wood(bois flotté) on the beach. He wasparticularly fond of / keen on odd-shapedshells (des coquillages aux formes étranges). Moore liked / enjoyed / relished in / delighted in round pebbles (galets). He wasinterested in the action of time uponorganicmaterials. He paidmuch attention to the holes (trous) in the shells. His sketches evidencehisinterest in the interplay(la combinaison) of emptiness and volumes. He foundgreatpleasure in stridingalong(marcher le long de) the beaches. Odd-shaped rocks and cliffs(falaises) equallyappealed to him. QUESTION 8 : Whichobjectsinspired Moore ? List 3 differentthingsmentioned on the left.
Recliningfigure (figure allongée) The womanislying, no pedestal supports her. Sheisleaning on her right elbow. The female figure islooking to the left. Her legs are crossed. Sheissitting cross-legged in a laid-back / relaxed position. Herbreasts are symbolized by twocones and herknees are slightlyprotudind and angular. Hershins are muchlargerthanherforearms. Moore doesn’ttry to made a life-likerepresentation. The balance betweenwith round and sharp-edged parts isstriking. QUESTION 9 : Comment dit-on s’appuyer ? Etre assis jambes croisées ? Des parties à arêtes saillantes ?
Reclining Figure QUESTION 10: Is this a non-figurative work or a human figure ?
Reclining Figure, elmwood QUESTION 11: Which part of the woman’s body isrepresented by a hole or a void ?
Reclining figure QUESTION 12 : The sculpture in the bottomis an outdoorwork. How doesit change the effect of the sculpture ?
Reclining figure in three parts. The viewer / the onlooker / the beholder / the passer-by canstillidentify a human figure. The upper part of the body iscomposed of simplifiedshapes. It couldbe the body of a human or an animal given the bulkiness/ the heftiness of the shapes. The face is a mere flat surface with no feature. The sculpture is made out of separate parts. The geometricalelementsthatconstitute the legs look likeprehistoricmegaliths or arches. QUESTION 12 : Whichwords correspond to « la massivité » ? Twodifferentwords are used in the text.
Hill Arches QUESTION 13 : Whycouldweconsiderthisworkboth as an abstract work and the simplifiedrepresentation of a reclining figure ?
Large Arch, Colombus QUESTION 14 Whatis the relation between the sculpture and itssurroundings ? Is the workwell-integrated ?
Madonna and Child, 1948 QUESTION 15: Is the Madonna or Virgin Mary represented in a traditional, classicalway in the sculpture?
RecliningMother and Child An infant (nouveau né); the womb (l’utérus); feed a child: embrace (étreindre); a shelter (abri); a grotto (grotte); a cavity; a hollow (un creux); motherhood; childhood; an egg-likeshape; a shell. QUESTION 16: How does Moore evoke the fragility of the infant?
QUESTION 17: Whatis the common point, or elementbetween the drawings and the sculpture?
Madonna and Child, Travertinemarble, 1983 18 Translate the following sentences : La douceur du marbre évoque l’amour entre la mère et son enfant. On a l’impression que la mère regarde l’enfant assis sur ses genoux. La forme ronde de la femme est semblable à celle d’un œuf. La lumière accentue les arêtes des formes et les volumes. Même si aucun trait de visage n’est visible, la sculpture est expressive et symbolise la maternité.
String figures The strings (cordes) mayevoke the limbs of a human figure. Theymayconjure up visions of animal shapes. Theymaybring to mindthe fangs (crocs) of predators. Theymayremind the viewer of fishingnets (filets de pêche). The upper part isreminiscent of a head and neck. QUESTION 19: Whichthemesthatwerealreadypresent in hispreviouspiecesis Moore re-usinghere ?
Peter Selz ‘Figuration’ “Much of the writing on art in the era following World War II equated modernism with abstraction and postulated a notion in painting that called forever greater reduction towards a flat surface of pure color relationship. But culture is no subject to evolution, and progressiveness does not apply in the arts. In fact, modernism, in art as in literature, was subject to many strategies. During this period, a great many painters and sculptors, working in a multiplicity of styles in both Europe and America, continued to find the human image of central importance. Perhaps Henry Moore expressed it most succinctly when he asserted : “For me, sculpture is based and remains close to the human figure. We make the kind of sculpture we make because we are the shape we are, because of the proportions we have…”.” QUESTION 20: Wouldyou call Henry Moore a classicist or a modernist ?
