Henry Moore

Introduction
Background and education
Travel and further artistic influences
Achievements in the 1930s
Changes wrought by World War II
Later years

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Henry Moore: Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9

Reclining Figure: Angles from an exhibition of Henry Moore's sculptures at the New York Botanical Garden, New York City, 2008.

Henry Moore: Woman Seated in the Underground

At a Glance

Henry Moore summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

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Artists, Painters, & Architects

63 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Visual Arts Quizzes

Related Questions

How did Constantin Brancusi and Cubism influence Henry Moore’s early sculpture?
How did Henry Moore build his bronze sculptures before they were cast?
How did Henry Moore make his bronze sculptures available to museums and collectors around the world?
How did Henry Moore use his rehabilitation grant after World War I?
How did Henry Moore use pebbles, shells, rocks, and bones in developing his sculptures?
How did Henry Moore want the figures in his Madonna and Child sculpture to appear?
How did Henry Moore’s 1925 trip to France and Italy affect his artistic development?
How did Henry Moore’s Lincoln Center sculpture connect the human body with landscape forms?
How did Henry Moore’s childhood in a coal-mining town influence the subjects of his wartime drawings?
How did Henry Moore’s standing bronze figures of 1950 differ from his earlier humanistic sculptures?
How did Henry Moore’s visit to Greece influence sculptures such as King and Queen and Warrior with Shield?
How did Herbert Read support Henry Moore’s early career?
How did Pablo Picasso’s art influence Henry Moore in the 1930s?
How did World War II change the materials Henry Moore used for art?
How did the British Museum influence Henry Moore’s development as a sculptor?
How did the death of Henry Moore’s mother and the birth of his daughter affect the themes in his work?
How did the family-group commission of 1944 change Henry Moore’s style?
What did Henry Moore’s shelter drawings show about Londoners during the Blitz?
What event did Henry Moore’s Atom Piece at the University of Chicago commemorate?
What happened to Henry Moore after he was exposed to gas shells in France during World War I?
What public artwork did Henry Moore create for the London Transport Board headquarters?
What sculpture did Henry Moore create for the Festival of Britain in 1951?
When did Henry Moore begin creating reclining female figures?
Where did Henry Moore make his permanent home during World War II?
Where did Henry Moore study art after leaving the British Army?
Where did the Henry Moore Sculpture Gallery and Centre for the Study of Sculpture open in 1982?
Where was Henry Moore born in Yorkshire?
Where was Henry Moore’s first one-person exhibition held in 1928?
Which London art school asked Henry Moore to establish its sculpture department?
Which ancient artistic traditions influenced Henry Moore’s sculpture?
Which artists were leading members of the Unit One group with Henry Moore?
Which exhibition helped establish Henry Moore’s international reputation in 1946?
Which materials did Henry Moore use most often for his sculptures after World War II?
Which print series did Henry Moore create in his later years?
Which prize did Henry Moore win at the 1948 Venice Biennale?
Who was Irina Radetzky, Henry Moore’s wife?
Why did Henry Moore accept the commission for Madonna and Child at St. Matthew’s Church in Northampton?
Why did Henry Moore begin carving stone again near the Carrara quarries in Italy?
Why did Henry Moore carve holes and concavities into some of his sculptures?
Why did Henry Moore create drawings of people sheltering in London Underground stations?
Why did Henry Moore draw coal miners in Castleford during World War II?
Why did Henry Moore establish the Henry Moore Foundation in 1977?
Why did Henry Moore join the Unit One group in 1933?
Why did Henry Moore move to London in 1921?
Why did Henry Moore turn away from the traditional European sculpture he saw in London museums?
Why did Henry Moore’s abstract sculptures of the 1930s cause controversy in Britain?
Why did some of Henry Moore’s large abstract sculptures of the 1960s have fewer obvious human features?
Why is Henry Moore considered an important sculptor of the 20th century?
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What was Lord Byron’s disability?
Why did Lord Byron leave England in 1816?
What is a Byronic hero?
Who was Lord Byron’s famous daughter?
What was Lord Byron’s early life like?
What was Lord Byron like?
How did Lord Byron die?
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Visual Arts Sculpture

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External Websites

The Art Story - Biography of Henry Moore
Tate - Henry Moore's Sculpture
Guggenhiem - Biography of Henry Moore
Artnet - Biography of Henry Moore

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Henry Moore - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Henry Moore - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Henry Moore

British artist

Written by

Alan Bowness

Director, Henry Moore Foundation, London, 1988–94. Director, Tate Gallery, London, 1980–88. Author of Modern European Art; Recent British Painting.

Alan Bowness

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Henry Moore (born July 30, 1898, Castleford, Yorkshire, England—died August 31, 1986, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire) was an English sculptor whose organically shaped, abstract, bronze and stone figures constitute the major 20th-century manifestation of the humanist tradition in sculpture. Much of his work is monumental, and he was particularly well-known for a series of reclining nudes. Moore was born in a small coal-mining town near Leeds in the north of England. He was the seventh child...

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