Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure

While all the fires burned and fireworks dazzled on November 5th, there was serious business going on at the Impressionist and Modern sale at Christie’s New York.

Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure came under the hammer and found a new home – selling for $6,101,000.  This particular piece is in bronze, marked 2 of 6 and made in 1969 and cast in 1970.  It is a spectacular and massive piece, some 11 feet in length and the  largest single figure ever created by Moore that he cast in bronze.

The Figure was made relatively late in his career, when he had moved from a more literal portrayal of the human body, to exploring abstract forms, seen in this piece with bulbous shapes twisting and arcing.  We can certainly recognise the reclining female figure, but it has become much more symbolic.

To quote from Christie’s  Lot notes (which make good reading)

‘His forms trace the curvature of the landscape, the flow of a river and the growth of plants, and suggest the poetry inherent in all these things.’

I carved my very own Reclining Figure some years ago, and she went to live in a beautiful garden,  relaxing under a great old tree, with a huge protective canopy.