Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue
Ideas for Sculpture: Senate Building, London University
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Ideas for Sculpture: Senate Building, London University
Sketchbook
- Page from Sketchbook
Date1938
Artwork TypeDrawing
Catalogue NumberHMF 1418
Date Order NumberAG 38.58
Mediapencil
Papercream medium-weight wove
Dimensionspaper: 271 x 183 mm
Signature
unsigned, undated
Inscription
pencil u.l. Try reclining figure/Try crouching figure - or seated figure -/And torso down to hips; u.c. Think of subject matter -/Mother and child - University the mother - child the students/& Try abstract ideas; u.c.r. Still life group of Education/or of Arts/sciences/or life mixed with/Education; u.c.l. Seated Figures (see drawings/done at cottage); c.r. figure/among books/etc/abstracted/Keep it all/architectural/& big; l.c.l. Think hard of the Architectural/problem - of the relation of sculpture/to Architecture/Scale etc/static/Think of the abstract reliefs; l.r. Imagine that one was doing/it for oneself or say for/a Wells Coates building
OwnershipThe Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
More InformationTen years after commissioning the West Wind relief LH 58 from Moore, the architect Charles Holden asked him to do a series of relief sculptures for the Senate House of London University. Moore was unenthusiastic about the idea; he did not like doing relief sculptures nor did he want to make sculpture merely as decoration to architecture. This and the following four drawings from an unidentified sketchbook, show his approach to the project both in words and sketches. Moore and Holden worked out the proportions for the five blocks envisaged; these were to be roughly hewn and placed in situ on the Senate House, though the commision was never fulfilled.
