Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue
Seated Figure
Seated Figure
pen and ink l.c.r. Moore, undated
In a letter of 1974 to the owner of the drawing, Moore wrote: '. . . its date I think, is around 1934. At that time I did a lot of drawings from life - some of them were drawings of my wife, but I changed the hairstyle and other things and did not attempt to make a portrait likeness. 'In the first half of the 1930's I did a series of Seated Figure drawings in which the pose had the knees facing me (that is, not in side view), and to express more forcibly the projection of the legs I drew them with stronger emphasis and in darker tone - and I drew the body part of the figure (the trunk, shoulders and head) in paler, lighter tones - so trying to emphasise their further distance away from me. 'As a sculptor I prefer my sculpture to be static (that is, not portraying physical movement), and so even in my life drawings I tend to choose poses where the model can feel at rest, and able to pose naturally without strain and fatigue.' Despite Moore's comment on the date, the drawing has been assigned to 1930 on stylistic grounds.