Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity

ISBN 978-1-84976-391-2

Henry Moore Letter to Ben Nicholson 9 July 1935

Henry Moore 'Letter to Ben Nicholson' 9 July 1935
Henry Moore
Letter to Ben Nicholson 9 July 1935
Tate Archive TGA 8717/1/2/3020
The constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo first visited London in 1935 and in this letter written in July of that year Moore attempts to arrange a meeting with him through Ben Nicholson in London. (Although living at Jasmine Cottage, his cottage in Kent, Moore travelled to London to undertake his teaching duties at Chelsea School of Art and retained his studio flat in Hampstead.) Gabo settled in Hampstead in 1936, and for a short period he and Moore, together with Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, were part of what the critic Herbert Read later described as ‘a nest of gentle artists’. (Herbert Read, ‘A Nest of Gentle Artists’, Apollo, September 1962, pp.536–40.)

Transcript

[Handwritten:]
Tuesday. July 9th.                 Jasmine Cottage
                                  Barfrestone, Nr Dover
                                  Kent.
Dear Ben,
 Thanks for your p.c. and invitation to dinner for tomorrow night, but we’ve got an affair on hand here tomorrow night and I can’t come up until Thursday morning – But I should like to meet Gabo – Tschichold told me about him, and Maholy Nagy [sic] was also telling me about him the other night, so also Dr Antal spoke of him – So I’d be sorry not to meet him, – Do you know if he’s going to remain in London for a few days? Do you think you could ask him if he’s going to be in London this Friday – if so and he’s free I’d like to ask him to come and have tea at Parkhill Road (say at 5 pm) and I could by coming back here by a later train than I usually catch, have a good hour or more with him, which I’d like very much.
 I’ll ring you up from Chelsea on Thursday. (I’d ask him to come round Thursday evening but there’s a meeting of the Artists Unit affair to go to).
 I’m not sending you a wire about this as the nearest post office is about a couple of miles away, and the motor bike conked out yesterday.
Love to you both from us both
                   Yours,
 
                        Henry

How to cite

Henry Moore, Letter to Ben Nicholson, 9 July 1935, in Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity, Tate Research Publication, 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/henry-moore/henry-moore-letter-to-ben-nicholson-r1145443, accessed 13 November 2024.