Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity

Presented by the artist to Tate in 1978 as part of the Henry Moore Gift.

This large relief sculpture was cast in bronze from an original plaster model, which would have been made by applying successive layers of plaster to a supportive armature. The surface texture of the bronze bears evidence of this process, demonstrating how Moore built up the wet plaster with a spatula. Further traces of Moore’s working process can be seen in the chisel marks and striations on the surface, which would have been made once the plaster had hardened (fig.1). A mould was then taken from the finished plaster so that the sculpture could be cast in bronze. This bronze was cast at the Noack Foundry, West Berlin, in an edition of six plus one artist’s copy.

As this sculpture is a relief, numerous marks providing valuable insights into the casting process remain visible on its rear side. For instance, the weld seams have not been filed down on this side and show that the sculpture was cast in four large sections that were welded together (fig.2). Residues of dark sand can also be seen, indicating that the bronze was made using the sand casting technique, which involves burying a model in sand to create a mould from which the bronze can be cast. This technique is quicker and less labour intensive than lost wax casting but is generally less suitable for reproducing very intricate shapes or surface details. Since the bronze has to be cast in a single pour, the maximum size of any one piece of bronze is dependent on the crucible size that the foundry uses. This means that it is often more practical and carries less risk to fabricate larger bronzes from a number of parts. The raised crackle pattern on the rear surface shows where the molten bronze ran into cracks in the mould. All evidence of faults and welds would have been removed from the front of the relief by means of a process known as ‘chasing’. This would have required such areas to be abraded and textured with punch tools to integrate them with the surrounding surface. Aside from being cleaned and chemically patinated, the bronze has received no further modifications and retains the surface details of Moore’s original plaster.

The patination process involved applying chemical solutions to the bronze that reacted with the metal to produce coloured compounds. A rich dark brown colour was applied to this sculpture, overlaid with a light green that has been rubbed back on the high points (fig.3). This type of finish imitates the colour that a bronze would acquire naturally if displayed outdoors. After patination the surface of the sculpture was waxed to protect it.

Relief No.1 is fixed to a flat, rectangular bronze base by threaded bolts. These bolts pass from the underside of the base through flanges welded at the bottom of the rear side of the sculpture. The artist’s signature and edition number have been inscribed towards the lower right-hand side of the sculpture (fig.4). The foundry mark ‘H.NOACK BERLIN’ has been stamped between the signature and the sculpture’s lower edge (fig.5).

Relief No.1 1959 is a tall bronze relief sculpture, which when seen from the front comprises a relatively flat rear plane capped with a triangular point, from which various rounded and angular forms project. As a whole, the configuration of these forms loosely outlines the shape of a standing human figure divided into three distinct sections: the head and shoulders at the top, the central abdomen, and two legs cut off at the knees at the bottom. Sharp recessions between these sections interrupt the continuous evocation of a body in space, although the fact that the figure appears to lean to one side, with its right leg projecting further than the left, gives the impression that it is stepping forward. The depth of the sculptural relief identifies it as a mezzo relief, for around half of the volume of the figure projects from the surface. Unlike most relief sculptures, which are designed to be integrated into walls and only be seen from one side, Relief No.1 is a free-standing sculpture.

The neck and head of the figure are denoted by a vertical, semi-cylindrical shaft with a domed top, which tapers down into a rounded, almost horizontal shelf representing the shoulders (fig.1). When seen from the front the shoulders slope slightly upwards from left to right, where a rounded swelling may outline the top of an upper arm. Below the shoulders, occupying the position of the abdomen, is a more angular protrusion made up of sharper, irregular shaped surfaces and a thin disc-like appendage that juts out from the surface at a right angle (fig.2).

Although the hips and legs of the figure are not anatomically accurate, they are the most recognisably human features of the sculpture and take the form of rounded swellings that lead down to thick semi-cylindrical thighs, which terminate abruptly at the base (fig.3). The two legs are separated by a wide, arched recessed space, the depth of which is accentuated by a series of parallel lines that fan outwards from the cavity (fig.4).

By 1959, when Relief No.1 was created, Moore had moved away from making preparatory drawings for his sculptures and had started making small three-dimensional models in clay, plaster and other malleable materials. It is likely that Moore made the plaster Maquette for Relief No.1 (fig.5) in the maquette studio on the grounds of his home, Hoglands, at Perry Green in Hertfordshire. This studio was lined with shelves displaying Moore’s ever growing collection of found bones, shells and flint stones, the shapes of which often served as starting points for Moore’s formal experiments in three dimensions. In 1963 he described how he worked with these objects to the critic David Sylvester:

The shapes of the projecting forms suggest that Moore may have created Maquette for Relief No.1 by first pushing natural objects into a piece of clay, which was then cast in plaster.

Once Moore was satisfied with the design of his maquette it was scaled up to a full-size plaster version (fig.6). The enlargement process was probably carried out in the White Studio at Hoglands by Moore’s studio assistants, who in 1959 included Geoffrey Harris and Phillip King. He was able to allocate the bulk of the enlargement work to others because, as curator Julie Summers has noted, it was ‘a scientific rather than artistic process’.2 Using the small maquettte as a guide, an armature was constructed from wood or chicken wire over which successive layers of plaster were built up. According to James Copper, Sculpture Conservator at The Henry Moore Foundation, it is likely that this plaster sculpture was created lying flat on the ground before being lifted into its vertical position.3 A piece of newspaper attached to the rear of the sculpture is dated 16 April 1959, and may indicate when work on the plaster enlargement commenced (fig.7). Once the full-size plaster version was near completion Moore would have taken over to texture the surface. A second standing relief was made in plaster around the same time, but this was not cast in bronze because Moore was not sufficiently pleased with the arrangement of the forms.4

When the plaster version was complete it was sent to the Noack Foundry in West Berlin to be cast in bronze. By the late 1950s Noack was regarded as one of the best bronze foundries able to undertake large-scale castings. To cast this sculpture the plaster had to be cut up into four pieces and covered in sealants and resins so that moulds could be made into which molten bronze could be poured. Seams where the four pieces of bronze were subsequently welded together are clearly visible on the rear of the sculpture (fig.8). On the front they were filed down and smoothed using a technique known as ‘chasing’.

The rippled texture on the surface of the plaster sculpture has been retained in the bronze cast. Relief No.1 was cast in an edition of six plus one artist’s copy, and according to information provided by the Henry Moore Foundation the whole edition was cast in 1959. In addition, records at the Foundation reveal that at least three of the separate bases were cast by Corinthian Bronze Co. in Peckham, London, and were delivered to Moore by July 1961.5

After it had been cast at the foundry the bronze sculpture was returned to Moore so that he could inspect the casting and make decisions about its patination. A patina is the surface colour of a sculpture and is usually achieved by applying chemical solutions to the bronze surface. The inner areas and edges of Relief No.1 have a dark brown patina while the high points – those projecting furthest from the rear surface – are a lighter golden brown. A reddish tinge can be seen on certain areas of the surface, while a mottled green patina appears in the crevasses and recesses (fig.9). When the sculpture entered the Tate collection the gallery’s conservators Derek Pullen and Jackie Heuman determined that the patina of this sculpture should not be exposed to the elements, and so it has only ever been exhibited indoors.

Moore rarely made relief sculptures because he usually preferred to sculpt in the round. According to former Tate curator Richard Calvocoressi:

The curator Alan Wilkinson has drawn direct parallels between the Rotterdam relief and Relief No.1, suggesting that certain forms found in the latter sculpture were developed from maquettes for the commission, specifically Wall Relief: Maquette No.3 1955 (fig.10), which he has argued bears a prototypical relation to Moore’s standing figure.7 Moore’s decision to release these forms from an architectural façade represented a significant departure from convention, as the artist explained in 1980 to Calvocoressi, who noted that

The ‘forceful qualities’ that Moore wished to convey in Relief No.1 were recognised in critical responses to the sculpture. In 1968 the art critic John Russell asserted that ‘in the monumental Relief No.1 the human body is seen as something robust as a rhino: with something, in fact of a rhino’s armoured hide, and something of its power to trample and thrust when and where we least expect it’.9

Along with the Rotterdam commission, Moore’s renewed interest in relief sculpture may have originated from his trip to the archaeological site of Pompeii, Italy, in 1954. There he observed the effects of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which buried the Roman town in volcanic ash. He was particularly intrigued by the plaster casts of preserved corpses lying on the ground, which he photographed from various angles (fig.11). Although discussions of Moore’s visit to Pompeii are usually restricted to interpretations of his sculpture Falling Warrior 1956–7 (Tate T02278), his photographs of embedded and fragmented bodies may also have influenced the figurative forms of Relief No.1 and his other major relief sculpture from the period, Reclining Figure 1956–60 (fig.12). In this large elm sculpture the figure adopts the pose of a reclining figure, but is orientated vertically so that it appears to be standing with bent knees against a flat wall, from which she appears to have emerged. Although this figure has been carved in high relief, and possesses more recognisably human features, the orientation of the figure and the way in which it protrudes out of the rear plane bears a resemblance to Relief No.1.

Another possible influence on Moore’s development of Relief No.1 may have been Henri Matisse’s series of Backs, which Tate acquired in the mid-1950s (Tate T00081–T00082, T00114, T00160; see fig.13). These four sculptures progressively reduce the form of a standing female nude to essential shapes, and represent Matisse’s attempt to ‘consider the nude as an arrangement of forms that he could simplify and stylise’.10 The four sculptures were purchased individually by Tate between 1955 and 1957 and were known to Moore, who while serving as a Tate trustee in May 1956 was asked by the director Norman Reid to advise how they should be displayed.11

The fragmentation of the body in Relief No.1 was regarded by critics as an unusual departure from the flowing lyricism of Moore’s draped female figures, which the artist had sculpted just a few years earlier (see for example Draped Reclining Woman 1957–8, Tate T06825). Discussing Moore’s then uncast plaster reliefs in 1960, the critic Will Grohmann asserted that ‘only a few years ago one would not have believed Moore capable of bursting out of the framework of his previous achievement and thrusting on to productions involving not only figures of a new kind, but also a new approach to the processes of sculpture’.12 Although Relief No.1 did signal a new approach to figurative sculpture for Moore, it did not represent a complete break from the artist’s earlier work, as suggested by Grohmann. For instance, the arched niche formed by the legs of the figure is a sculptural motif that can be traced back to Moore’s work of the early 1930s. Figure 1931 (fig.14) contains a comparable shallow, arched recess in its torso, while the peaks and troughs of the figure’s breasts further anticipate the projections and recessions of Relief No.1.

In 1965 the critic Herbert Read suggested that ‘the torso has been modified into a sinister mask’, whereby the middle and lower sections of the sculpture may be read as the long, gaunt face of an elderly man (fig.15).13 According to this interpretation the shoulders double as a furrowed brow above eyes formed by the rounded bulges at the top of the central protrusion, while the projecting disk can be seen to form a large nose with pronounced nostrils. The left hip can then be understood as a cheekbone, and the legs as swollen cheeks surrounding an open mouth.

In his assessment of the sculpture Russell concluded that ‘old-style aestheticizing, and considerations of “beauty” and “ugliness” are meaningless in the context of this relief. It is, understandably, one of the least popular of his pieces: and nothing could give more conclusive proof of Moore’s vitality as an artist then his ability to produce a commandingly powerful work which almost nobody likes’.14

Relief No.1 was presented by Henry Moore to the Tate Gallery in 1978 as part of the Henry Moore Gift. The Gift comprised thirty-six sculptures in bronze, marble and plaster and was exhibited in its entirety alongside Tate’s existing collection of Moore’s work in an exhibition celebrating the artist’s eightieth birthday, which opened in June 1978. A press release was duly prepared announcing that ‘The group [of sculptures] is the most substantial gift of works ever given to the Tate by an artist during his lifetime’.15 Relief No.1 was included in the birthday exhibition, which was attended by over 20,500 people and nearly 11,000 copies of the catalogue were sold.16 At its close in late August the Director of Tate, Norman Reid, reflected in a letter to Moore’s daughter Mary Danowski that although he was sad to see the exhibition come to an end ‘we have the consolation of the splendid group of sculptures which Henry has presented to the nation’.17

Relief No.1 was cast in bronze in an edition of six plus one artist’s copy, which now belongs to Tate. Other casts are held in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and the Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green. The plaster original is also held in the collection of the Henry Moore Foundation.