Henry Spencer Moore
English, 1898-1986
Working Model for UNESCO Reclining Figure
INV-1144
Henry Spencer Moore
English, 1898-19861957
Working Model for UNESCO Reclining Figure
Henry Spencer Moore English, 1898-1986 →sculpturemodern and contemporary art
Date
1957
Medium
Bronze, cast in 1957, from an edition of five plus one
Dimensions
139.7 × 238.8 × 121.9 cm (55 × 94 × 48 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold H. Maremont
In the 1950s, Henry Moore executed a number of important public commissions, including Reclining Figure for the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in Paris. The Art Institute’s sculpture is one of six smaller bronze versions of the unique, over-16-foot-long marble figure that Moore installed at UNESCO in 1958. The artist looked to many cultures—particularly to enduring examples of art from ancient Greece and the Yucatán region of Mexico—to give his figural works their monumental forms and profound resonance with the art of the past. This reclining figure connects not only to history but also to the earth—its swelling masses and rounded voids suggest the female form as well as a landscape of valleys, mountains, and caves.
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