Focus on Draped Reclining Woman 1957–58 and discuss the Background.
Henry Moore was a war artist in World War II. He made a series drawings of people sheltering from The Blitz in the London Underground, usually swathed in thick clothes. These drawings sparked an interest in drapery which was renewed by the classical sculptures that Moore saw during a 1951 trip to Greece. He was attracted by the ability of the drapery to draw attention to some parts of the human form by lying tightly on the shoulders, thighs or breasts while concealing other parts where the wrapping falls slack, and also by the varied textures created by small and large folds in the material.
Moore made a series of sculptures of draped human forms in the 1950s after he was commissioned to create a sculpture for the new UNESCO Headquarters building in Paris. He wanted to create a figure in an architectural context, and turned to the seated human form. His Draped Reclining Figure, 1952–53 was a precursor to these later draped figures. He completed the first major work in the series in 1955, with a maquette, Draped Seated Woman: Figure on Steps (LH 427), cast in a series of 10. This became the working model for the full–size sculpture that became his Draped Seated Woman 1957–58. The reclining figure is a dominant theme of Moore's work, with perhaps half of his sculptures in a reclining position. He made a similar work in a reclining position, Draped Reclining Woman 1957–58. Moore ultimately abandoned these ideas for the UNESCO commission, and his UNESCO Reclining Figure 1957-58 (LH 416) is a much more abstract reclining form in travertine.
UNESCO Headquarters Draped Seated Woman 1957–58 drapery Henry Moore London Underground war artist The Blitz UNESCO Reclining Figure 1957-58 travertine maquette Draped Reclining Figure, 1952–53 World War II classical sculpture