Reclining Figure: Hand

Date1979

Artwork TypeSculpture

Catalogue NumberLH 709 cast 0

Mediabronze

Foundry Bildgiesserei Hermann Noack, Berlin

Dimensionsartwork: 167 × 221 × 132 cm

Signature

stamped Moore, 0/9

OwnershipThe Henry Moore Foundation: acquired 1986

Collections

More Information

The maquette for this work combines a vertical piece of bone attached to a flat section of flint. Henry Moore was a longstanding collector of organic objects. As a student, he visited the Natural History Museum and began amassing bones, stones and shells, which lined the shelves of his studio. Echoes of the curves and crevices of rock and bone can be seen in this figure.

The sculpture's title derives from its almost completely abstracted left hand, which rests at the centre of the composition. In preliminary models for the work, this was emphasised by lines denoting the closed gaps between the figure's fingers.

Exhibitions

2013 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Henry Moore Outside

2011 St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, Blitz and Blockade: Henry Moore at the Hermitage

2024 Perry Green, Sculpture, Inspiration and our Natural Worlds

2015 Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Henry Moore: Back to a Land

2023 Perry Green, Vitality: The Human Landscapes of Henry Moore

2022 Perry Green, Sculpture in the Landscape at Henry Moore Studios & Gardens

2021 Perry Green, Edmund de Waal Presents Henry Moore

Published References

Henry Moore at Perry Green

Henry Moore Back to a Land

To what extent are the sculptures of Henry Moore open to re-interpretation by the twenty-first century spectator based upon their own experience of them, and how is this impacted by the specific site and conditions of display?