Relief No.1 1959 is a rare example of a free-standing relief sculpture in Moore’s work. The front surface comprises an undulating arrangement of shapes that suggest the schematic form of a female figure, which appears to be embedded within, or emerging from, the flat ground. Moore’s interest in relief sculpture in the late 1950s developed from architectural commissions and a trip to Pompeii, where he saw casts of bodies half buried in volcanic ash.