Henry Moore Letter to Sir Michael Sadler 31 December 1933
Henry Moore Letter to Sir Michael Sadler 31 December 1933, Page 1Tate Archive TGA 8221/2/98
Henry Moore Letter to Sir Michael Sadler 31 December 1933, Page 2Tate Archive TGA 8221/2/98
When Henry Moore first met Michael Sadler he was a student at Leeds School of Art and Sadler was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds and a collector of modernist works by such figures as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and the German expressionists. Sadler helped open up the world of modern art to Moore and in 1920 became one of Moore’s earliest patrons.
Responding presumably to a concern expressed by Sadler about the durability of a concrete sculpture by Moore in his collection, Moore here offers to coat the work with a new preparation designed to protect concrete buildings, in part, no doubt, to reassure and maintain good relations with one of his most important collectors.
Transcript
[Handwritten:]
11A Parkhill Road
Hampstead
London N.W.3
Hampstead
London N.W.3
31 Dec 1933
Dear Sir Michael,
I met a man the other day who is an analytical chemist, working for a firm of paint manufacturers.
He told me that many concrete buildings, a few years after they were completed, showed a tendency to be affected by weather, and over large, flat areas tiny hair cracks might appear. He said that his firm, after working for several years had now perfected a preparation to prevent the weathering of concrete and when I told him about the concrete reclining figure of mine which you have bought, he said that probably it would be perfectly all right out of doors, but as nobody yet [end of p.1] knows enough about the durability of concrete, he thought it would be wiser to cover it with their preparation (which is thin and transparent and does not alter the look of the surface). He said he would give me enough to do your figure. So if you would like the reclining figure painted with this preparation I shall be very glad to come up one day to Oxford to do it.
I was very pleased when the Leicester Galleries rang me up to say that you wanted to have the sculptures and drawings you got at my exhibition. I am very happy indeed that you have them.
Yrs sincerely
Henry Moore.
How to cite
Henry Moore, Letter to Sir Michael Sadler, 31 December 1933, in Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity, Tate Research Publication, 2015, https://www