Collection Online
Medium
stone
Measurements
55.9 × 33.4 × 24.7 cm (overall)
Place/s of Execution
England
Accession Number
683-D4
Department
International Sculpture
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1948
© Henry Moore/DACS, London. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work

Henry Moore was fascinated by direct carving, the art of carving stone directly without a model or template, and this sculpture epitomises his vision during the early 1930s. Carved from Ancaster stone, a local material found in the East Midlands of England, the work’s weight and texture reinforce the monumentality of the figure. Characteristic of Moore’s style, the form is simplified, and he has discarded the notion of the individual by generalising the facial features. Moore’s reductionist aesthetic is here partly inspired by archaic Greek and Oceanic sculptures that he studied in the British Museum.