EXHIBITION GUIDE
Foreword
Introduction
In the early 1930s a group of artists
including Barbara Hepworth, Henry
Moore and Ben Nicholson took working
holidays at Happisburgh on the Norfolk
coast. A Nest of Gentle Artists explores
these holidays - the friendships formed,
the work produced, and most importantly
their subsequent influence of the
development of modern art in Britain. A
story of regional interest can be seen to
have had an impact of international
importance.
'A nest of gentle artists' was a phrase coined
by the art historian Herbert Read to describe a
group of internationally important artists who
lived and worked in Hampstead in the 1930s.1 It
is perhaps surprising to learn that the beginnings
of this international avant-garde can in part be
traced back to Norfolk. The key British
protagonists in the Hampstead 'nest' - Barbara
Hepworth, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson coalesced as a group during working holidays
taken at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast in
1930 and 1931. The Happisburgh holidays
instigated a period of formal and stylistic
interchange between Hepworth, Moore and
Nicholson which although acknowledged in
publications on the artists has rarely been
directly explored in exhibitions.
We have long wanted to tell this story
through an exhibition in Norfolk and it is
also very appropriate that the exhibition
should tour to Sheffield Museums, an
established touring partner with Norfolk
Museums and Archaeology Service.
We are grateful to the Henry Moore
Foundation and the East Anglia Art Fund
for their financial support, without which
the exhibition could not have taken place.
We particularly appreciate the support of
all the lenders to the exhibition, both
public and private, who have so
generously responded to our theme.
Finally our thanks go to Nicholas
Thornton for writing the following essay
since leaving Norwich Castle to take up
the position of Head of Modern &
Contemporary Art at the National
Museum Wales.The research for this
essay was supported by a Jane
Thistlethwaite Travel Bursary awarded by
the Friends of Norwich Museums.
Andrew Moore
Keeper of Art & Senior Curator
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service
Previous discussion of the Happisburgh holidays
has tended to focus on the purely biographical, in
particular the way the 1931 holiday confirmed
the end of Hepworth's marriage to fellow
sculptor John Skeaping and the beginning of her
relationship with Nicholson. This biographical
detail, although important and full of anecdotal
interest, has tended to overshadow serious
consideration of the work produced during and
as a result of the Happisburgh holidays. The
Happisburgh holidays coincided with critical
transitional phases in the careers of Barbara
Hepworth, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson that
saw them develop new work which, by the end
of the 1930s, would see them firmly established
as key figures in an international avant-garde. The
experience of working alongside one another in a
friendly yet competitive environment, combined
with the opportunity to share and develop ideas,
resulted in a number of important formal
innovations in their work. It also directly
preceded, perhaps even encouraged a movement
towards abstraction that is clearly discernable in
the work of all three artists in the years
immediately following the 1931 holiday.
Norfolk and Yorkshire
2
The story of how this extraordinary group of
artists came to be holidaying in a small,
relatively isolated village on the Norfolk coast
has its beginnings in Yorkshire. Henry Moore
was born in Castleford in 1898, Barbara
Hepworth in Wakefield in 1903. Both later
remarked that the landscape of the West
Riding, in particular the hills and crags of the
Yorkshire moors, had been an important
influence. Moore recalled the early influence of
a rocky outcrop called Adel Rock near Leeds,
remembering it as a 'bleak, powerful form, very
impressive.'2 Hepworth, similarly moved by an
early engagement with landscape, recollected
the influence of her local surroundings:
'All my early memories are of forms and
textures. Moving through and over the West
Riding landscape with my father in his car the
hills were sculptures; the roads defined the
form. Above all, there was the sensation of
moving over the contours of fulnesses and
concavities, through hollows and over peaks feeling, touching, seeing, through mind and
hand and eye. This sensation has never left
me. I, the sculptor, am the landscape.'3
Hepworth and Moore met whilst studying at
Leeds School of Art and in 1921 both moved
from Yorkshire to London to pursue their
studies at the Royal College of Art.
In July 1922, Moore's parents Raymond and
Mary Moore moved from Castleford to the
small village of Wighton, Norfolk in the hope
that the countryside air would help Raymond's
failing health. They were accompanied by their
eldest daughter Mary who had secured a job as
Head of Wighton's Church of England primary
school. The family lived in the red brick School
House but the move did little to improve
Raymond's health. After a short stay in a
nursing home in Walsingham he died in August
1922. The family stayed on in Wighton and
other members of the Moore family relocated
to Norfolk. Moore's sister Betty married and
moved to Mulbarton, a village to the south of
Norwich whilst his brother Raymond became
headmaster of a school at Stoke Ferry, a village
to the south of Downham Market. This
network of family meant that Moore often
visited Norfolk during his vacations from the
Royal College of Art.
In particular he was a
regular visitor to his
mother and sister at
Wighton, often using
the garden for
carving (no.3, see
Figure 1). Indeed a
number of his most
important early
works, notably Dog
Figure 1: Henry Moore in the
garden of Wighton Schoolhouse
1922 (no.1) were
in 1922. Photo:The Henry Moore
Foundation
carved at Wighton.
At a time when art schools such as the Royal
College taught sculpture through reference to
modelling rather than carving, Moore used his
time in Norfolk to pursue his passion for
carving in stone. In 1925 Mary married George
Garrould, a local bank manager, and moved a
few miles north of Wighton to the coastal town
of Wells-next-the-Sea, before subsequently
moving to Colchester in Essex. During this
period Moore also stayed with Betty. In a letter
written from Mulbarton in August 1925 he
explained the importance of Norfolk in creating
time and space for carving:
'…I'm thankful that I'm not having to spend
my holidays in London as I thought I might be
obliged to - I'm thankful for these two spots
in Norfolk where I can sit in the open air,
cross-legged on patches of grass and chip
stone…'4
In a further letter from Mulbarton Moore
describes bringing two blocks of stone to his
sister's house to work on:
'I bought two pieces of stone here and one is
still untouched - I began carving in the hard
lump (a piece of Hopton Wood stone not
quite 2ft high and about 6” square), a half
figure of a woman with arms and hands
reaching upwards - its not coming on as well
as I expected - but I may get something into it
before its finished.'5
The block of Hopton Wood stone turned into
Woman with Upraised Arms 1924-25 (no.5, Figure
2). The treatment of the subject, its 'primitive'
3
appearance and
reference to the
forms of the original
block, underline the
influence of nonwestern and archaic
sculpture on Moore's
work. Whilst it is of
great interest that
important early
carvings such as Dog Figure 2: Henry Moore, Woman
with Upraised Arms, 1924-5,
and Woman with
The Henry Moore Foundation
Photographed by Michael Phipps
Raised Arms were
carved in Norfolk, there is nothing locationspecific about these works. In fact the
primitivism of the early 'Norfolk carvings'
deliberately eschews the local and particular in
order to engage with universal spheres of
influence - what Moore described in a
notebook from 1926 as 'the big view of
sculpture, the world tradition'. However, this is
not to say that Moore was not absorbing the
influence of the local and regional at this point
in his career. Inside the cover of the same
notebook - Notebook No.6 - he writes the aidemémoire: 'Remember pebbles on beach' (no.7,
Front cover). His lifelong interest in foundobjects and the influence of natural forms can
therefore be dated back to the mid-1920s and
the holidays he took in Norfolk when he first
started to collect flints and pebbles. In an
interview from 1932 he emphasised this point
when he stated: 'During visits to the Norfolk
coast I began collecting flint pebbles. These
showed Nature's treatment of stone and the
principle of the opposition of bumps and
hollows.'6 However, we have to wait until the
period immediately following the Happisburgh
holidays for these influences to fully emerge in
his work.
The Happisburgh Holidays
4
Moore's longstanding connections with Norfolk
led him to suggest to Hepworth that
Happisburgh would be a good location for a
working holiday. Hepworth was hoping that a
break from London may help her troubled
marriage to fellow artist John Skeaping. The
couple had married in Florence in 1925 having
both been awarded travelling scholarships to
Italy. Skeaping was an important early influence
on Hepworth's career. An excellent craftsman,
he taught Hepworth how to carve directly in
stone and wood, a skill that was central to her
subsequent direction as an artist. Despite their
early artistic success and the birth of their son
Paul in 1929, the couple's marriage was soon
experiencing difficulties. At Moore's suggestion
they rented Church Farm on the outskirts of
Happisburgh. Moore and his wife Irena were
invited to join them, as were Hepworth's
friends Douglas and Mary Jenkins and the
painter Ivon Hitchens. The group spent much
of their time on the beach below the cliffs at
Happisburgh. Here they soon discovered the
distinctive ironstone pebbles that were to
become an important feature of the Norfolk
holidays. As Skeaping recollected in his
autobiography:
'Henry, Barbara and I used to pick up large
iron-stone pebbles from the beach which
were ideal for carving and polished up like
bronze. I rode and fished on the broads. Henry
accompanied me on one of my fishing trips but
he couldn't leave sculpture alone for long and
took with him a piece of iron-stone and a rasp.
Sitting at one end of the boat he filed away
continuously, occasionally hauling in his line to
see if he had got anything on the end.'7
The interest in the ironstone pebbles was a
particular feature of the 1930 holiday and all
three sculptors produced work in this material.
Soon after Skeaping and Hepworth returned to
London from Norfolk they held a joint
exhibition at Arthur Tooth & Sons' gallery. The
couple exhibited 47 sculptures in a wide range
of wood and stone, all of which had been
carved during the preceding 18 months. The
selection included a range of ironstone
sculptures: Skeaping showed five - a stag, an ox,
an animal mask, Duck (no.52), and Torso (no.54).
Hepworth contributed two - a fish and a halffigure entitled Carving. The fact that they
contributed such a number of these sculptures
to an important exhibition suggests the
Happisburgh pebble sculptures were considered
important sculptural statements in their own
Figure 3: Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1930.
The Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection,
University of East Anglia. Photographed by James Austin
right and not simply holiday studies.The
following year, in April 1931, Moore had a solo
exhibition at the Leicester Galleries and he also
took the opportunity to show ironstone
sculptures: two heads, a mother and child and
Reclining Figure (no.11, Figure 3).
Ironstone pebbles can still be found on the
beach at Happisburgh.They range in size from
just a few centimetres across to the rarer, more
monumental pebbles which can measure up to
30 centimetres in length.A particular feature of
the pebbles is their flat, disc-like shape which
means that they rarely measure more than just
a couple of centimetres in depth.The narrow
profiles of works such as Skeaping's Fish (no.51)
and Moore's Reclining Figure are therefore
dictated by the shape of the original ironstone
pebble. It should be stressed that at this time it
was almost a prerequisite of progressive
sculptors in the 1920s and 30s to adhere to the
notion of 'truth to material'.They sought to
emphasise the inherent qualities and limitations
of their chosen sculptural material. In this way
restrictions dictated by materials were not so
much negotiated as celebrated by artists who
often viewed their work as 'unlocking' the form
hidden within a given stone.
The choice and treatment of subject-matter for
the 1930 ironstone sculptures had largely been
explored in other types of stone by Hepworth,
Moore and Skeaping during the 1920s. For
example the human figure, when present,
continued to be subject to the influence of
primitivism whilst the choice of animal subjects
was in keeping with a popular trend amongst
progressive sculptors in the preceding decade.
A striking feature of the ironstone sculptures is
the way they underline the close dialogue
between Hepworth, Moore and Skeaping at this
time.A number of commentators have
highlighted the formal similarities between
Hepworth's Carving and Moore's Mother and
Child, whilst Skeaping's Fish was originally
purchased by Tate as a work by Barbara
Hepworth.8 In terms of formal innovation
Skeaping's Stag is perhaps the most interesting
of this early group of ironstone sculptures.
Although the current whereabouts of this
sculpture is unknown, a photograph of the
work was included in the catalogue of the 1930
Tooth's show.The fusing of three ironstone
pebbles to form the stag's body, head and
antlers provides a quirky and formally innovative
solution to the representation of the subject.
If the 1930 stay at Happisburgh was a success
as a working holiday, it did little to repair the
fault-lines in the Hepworth - Skeaping marriage.
In the spring of 1931 Hepworth met Ben
Nicholson and his wife the artist Winifred
Nicholson.At this time Nicholson, the son of
the establishment painter Sir William
Nicholson, was moving away from the faux-naif
landscape painting that had been his focus for
much of the 1920s. Instead he was developing a
more sophisticated cubist style which would
signal his subsequent conversion to abstraction.
The two couples soon developed a friendship.
With this in mind, when Hepworth and Moore
decided to organize a second working holiday
in Happisburgh for the late summer of 1931,
Nicholson was invited to join the group.
Hepworth wrote at least two letters of
invitation to Nicholson. In one she outlined the
draw of the Norfolk landscape:
'Do come and stay with us at Happisburgh…I
enclose a photo of the farm - the colour is
very lovely.The country is quite flat but for a
little hill with a tall flint church and a
lighthouse…The beach is a ribbon of pale
sand as far as the eye can see.The Moore's
and ourselves should be so pleased if you
came…If you can get away the farm will be
less full the first week we are there - 9 Sept 16 Sept.'9
5
Figure 4: (left to right) Ivon Hitchens, Irina Moore, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and
Mary Jenkins on holiday at Happisburgh in Norfolk, 1931. Photographed by Douglas Jenkins.
The most iconic photograph of the 1931
holiday - the group standing at the foot of the
cliff at Happisburgh - records that Nicholson
did indeed make the trip to Norfolk. Winifred
remained with their family in Cumbria.
Impressed by his new friends, Nicholson
declared in a letter back home: 'I do like these
sort of free creative people they are alive and
vital - you know like we thought of Derain &
Picasso in Paris, with the same imagination and
power and purpose.'10 Meanwhile Skeaping,
who had recently asked Hepworth for a
divorce, remained in London. A week or so
later, he had a change of heart and arrived in
Happisburgh, to discover that his wife had fallen
in love with Nicholson. Realizing that he had
lost Hepworth he returned to London and a
less central role in the development of
modernist sculpture.
6
Nicholson's photographs from the 1931 holiday
- views of the farmyard, Moore working at
blocks of stone near the farmhouse, and the
group playing games on the beach - give us a
tantalising glimpse into the 1931 holiday (see
Figure 4). Although Nicholson left Happisburgh
before the rest of the party, what followed was
an exchange of letters with Hepworth that
provides a further insight into the holidays as
well as the intensity of their developing
relationship. One striking feature of
Hepworth's letters is her frequent references
to pebbles. In one letter she compares
Nicholson's head to 'the most lovely pebble
ever seen'.11 In another she describes collecting
from the beach 'a most beautiful stone - quite
big and perfect…grey like a sea bird…I am so
pleased with it I have packed it…amongst my
clothes.'12 In the same letter she declares:
'Today I have not worked as we got all the
brown stones up from the beach of mine and
Harry's and packed up 4 large crates and took
them to Stalham.'
This statement is significant because it reveals
the source and importance of the Happisburgh
ironstone pebbles as a sculptural material. Both
artists were keen to collect the pebbles from
the beach and pack them into crates ready for
shipment to London. However, there is no
evidence of any further ironstone sculptures
being completed in the years immediately
following this second holiday. We have to wait
until 1934 when the material is again used by
Hepworth and Moore in a remarkable series of
small abstract sculptures (see nos.36, 39).These
1934 ironstone sculptures again underline the
close stylistic similarities between the sculptures
of Hepworth and Moore at this time.
Organic abstraction
Although the ironstone pebbles were the
favored sculptural material during the
Happisburgh holidays, by far the most common
stone on Norfolk beaches are flints. Too hard
and brittle to be used for carving they were still
appreciated by the artists for their formal
qualities and figurative references. Many of the
flints on the beach at Happisburgh have been
freshly eroded from the cliff. Yet to be worn
smooth from the action of the sea, these stones
retain complex shapes that were appreciated by
the artists on a formal level but also for their
figurative and associative references. In 1937
Moore published an article in The Listener that
summarized these interests:
'Although it is the human figure which
interests me most deeply, I have always paid
great attention to the natural, such as bones,
shells and pebbles etc. For several years
running I have been to the same part of the
sea-shore - but each year a new shape of
pebble has caught my eye, which the year
before, though it was there in hundreds, I
never saw. Out of the millions of pebbles
passed in walking along the shore, I choose to
see with excitement only those that fit in with
my existing form interest at the time. A
different thing happens if I sit down and
examine a handful one by one. I may then
extend my form experience more, by giving
my mind time to become conditioned to a
new shape….Pebbles show nature's way of
working stone. Some of the pebbles I pick up
have holes right through them.'13
Moore's last sentence is particularly interesting
given a development that took place just after
the second Happisburgh holiday that has been
accorded great importance in the history of
British sculpture. Late in 1931 Hepworth
carved a small sculpture in pink alabaster
usually titled Pierced Form. The sculpture was
unfortunately destroyed during the War
although we are left with a record of the work
in the form of a black and white photograph.
The importance of this sculpture lies in the fact
that it is one of the earliest examples of a
sculptor carving a hole through a piece of stone
for non-representational purposes. This move
is important because it opened up the space
around and through the three-dimensional
form, creating a myriad of new opportunities
for the sculptor. Moore, who himself developed
this innovation in 1932, explains its significance
in The Listener:
'The first hole made through a piece of stone
is a revelation. The hole connects one side
with another, making it immediately more
three-dimensional. A hole itself can have as
much shape meaning as a solid mass.'14
For Hepworth and Moore the hole became an
important motif and one that they would
return to throughout the remainder of their
careers. The question as to who created the
first hole has been contentious. Some
commentators have argued for Moore, some
for Hepworth, while others have pointed to
earlier continental precedents. However, what
we can say is that the naturally occurring
pierced forms on beaches such as Happisburgh
offer a powerful precedent for this formal
innovation and may well have been a direct
source of inspiration. For the next few years
Moore and Hepworth produced a series of
sculptures that seemed to draw directly on
natural, organic forms.
Landscape and natural forms, often explored
with reference to the human figure, were
prominent in Hepworth's sculptures in the
years immediately following the Norfolk
holidays. The abstracted forms of the human
body in Sculpture with Profiles (no.31) are imbued
with the appearance of rocks worn smooth by
the action of sea and wind. The incised
figurative motifs in this sculpture, denoting facial
profiles and fingers, also feature in Moore's
sculptures at this time and are likely to have
been influenced by the scratched lines
appearing in Nicholson's paintings at this time.
In 1933, whilst visiting the south of France with
Nicholson, Hepworth produced a series of
drawings including St Rémy: Mountains and Trees I
1933 (no.35) that explored the convergence of
body with landscape. Indeed it was during this
visit to France that the link between figure and
landscape became reinforced in Hepworth's
mind following a visit to the studio of Hans Arp.
Seeing Arp's biomorphic, abstract sculptures
encouraged Hepworth to remark on the way
7
subjected to a series of staged transformations
which would gradually morph the natural form
into figurative motifs. In turn these motifs
would be used as source and inspiration in
subsequent carvings.
These examples indicate a legacy of influence
for the natural forms that Moore and
Hepworth discovered on the beach at
Happisburgh. This legacy, amplified as it was by
their growing awareness of continental
developments, informed their transition
towards purer forms of abstraction being
pioneered in Britain at this time by Ben
Nicholson.
Figure 5: Barbara Hepworth, Mother and Child, 1934.
The Hepworth Wakefield. Photographed by Norman Taylor
the surrealist sculptor had 'fused landscape with
the human form in so extraordinary a
manner.'15 Hepworth explored a similar fusion
in sculptures made during the following year. In
Mother and Child 1934 (no.37, Figure 5) the
pebble-like child nestles against the undulating
forms of the mother, whilst in the Cumberland
alabaster Mother and Child 1934 (no.38) the
forms of the reclining figures double as
references to landscape.
8
Moore was also absorbing continental
influences. Sculptures such as Figure 1931
(no.15) are characteristic of Arp's smooth,
organic shapes, whilst Composition 1931 (no.16)
reveals the unmistakable influence of Picasso.
Moore's sustained interest in surrealism is
evident in one of his most important bodylandscape sculptures of the 1930s - Four-Piece
Composition: Reclining Figure 1934 (no.25). This
work, with its sense of violence and
fragmentation, reveals a knowledge and interest
in surrealism. Moore balanced these continental
influences alongside an interest in found, natural
objects which was similarly explored by other
British artists during this decade including Paul
Nash and Graham Sutherland. In the years
immediately after the Happisburgh holiday he
embarked on a remarkable series of sketches
and studies known as the transformation
drawings. In these drawings a found object
such as a pebble or piece of bone would be
Hampstead
Within two months of the Happisburgh holiday
Nicholson had moved in with Hepworth. All
three artists were now based in Hampstead.
Nicholson's exposure to the work of sculptors
began to influence his work. In a letter written
from Happisburgh in 1931 he declared to
Winifred:
'That sculptor's vision is most lovely, it is a
new world to me in the same language &
most exciting things happen. There is
something very magical about the transposing
of ideas into form - it is quite amazing.'16
Figure 6: Ben Nicholson, 1932 (Still life with Guitar).
Leeds Museums and Galleries. Photographed by Norman Taylor.
At this time Nicholson's paintings became
increasingly sculptural. Scratched and incised
lines in paintings such as 1932 (Still life with
Guitar) (no.44, Figure 6) emphasise the threedimensional nature of the painted surface and
board support. In 1932 (painting) (no.43) these
incised lines appear to reference the forms of
landscape or perhaps a reclining figure. These
paintings on board were just one step away
from Nicholson's first carved reliefs which he
started to make towards the end of 1933, a
step that must have been encouraged by his
new proximity to sculptors, their tools and
discussions. In 1934 he carved further reliefs
(no.46) and these were soon followed by the
first white reliefs (see nos. 47 and 48). These
works occupied a position between painting
and sculpture. Their radical geometric
abstraction secured Nicholson's reputation in
the international avant-garde. By the mid-1930s
the 'nest of gentle artists' was well and truly
established. It was soon to be further
strengthened with the addition of leading
international Constructivists, notably Naum
Gabo and Piet Mondrian, who had settled in
London in the years leading up to the outbreak
of the Second World War.
Moore and Hepworth also produced work that
responded to Constructivism's rational aesthetic.
Hepworth started to make sculptures, including
Conoid, Sphere and Hollow II 1937 (no.42), which
explored the relationships between simple
geometric forms. She moved away from
indigenous British stones in favour of the
'modernist white' of Italian marble. Moore also
employed the language of Constructivism, as in
Carving 1936 (no.28), when he used a similar
arrangement of geometric forms to those found
in Nicholson's white reliefs. However, he was
less willing to abandon references to the human
figure and never embraced geometric abstraction
as enthusiastically as Hepworth and Nicholson.
Nonetheless throughout the 1930s the dialogue
between the three artists continued to engender
and sustain formal developments in all of their
work.
The outbreak of the Second World War brought
the Hampstead 'nest' to an end. This period of
friendship and interchange, which in so many
ways can be traced back to the Norfolk
holidays, would never be recaptured. Moore
moved to Perry Green in Hertfordshire whilst
Hepworth and Nicholson accepted an invitation
to move to St. Ives in Cornwall. It is interesting
to note that just prior to the War, Hepworth's
thoughts had again returned to Happisburgh.
Her happy memories of the time spent in
Norfolk encouraged her to choose the village
as the preferred destination to evacuate her
children to at the outbreak of War.17 In the
event her enquiries proved unsuccessful.
However, it is intriguing to think that if she had
been successful in securing a suitable property
in the village, then perhaps Happisburgh and not
St. Ives would have emerged in the years after
War as a centre of modern British art.
Nicholas Thornton
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
Herbert Read, 'A Nest of Gentle Artists', Apollo, Sept.
1962, pp. 536-540.
2 Alan Wilkinson (ed.), Henry Moore: Writings and
Conversations, (University of California Press, 2002), p.36
3 Barbara Hepworth, A Pictorial Autobiography, (Tate,
1985), p.9
4 Letter to Gin Coxon, 19 August 1925, quoted in Roger
Berthoud, The Life of Henry Moore, (Giles de la Mare,
2003), p.74
5 Undated letter to Evelyn Kendal, quoted in Berthoud
(2003), p.77
6 New English Weekly, 5 May 1932 quoted in Alan
Wilkinson (2002), p.189
7 John Skeaping, Drawn from Life, (Collins, 1977), pp.91-92
8 Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens, Barbara Hepworth:
Works in the Tate Collection, (Tate, 2001), pp.277-278
9 Letter to Ben Nicholson,Tate Gallery Archive TGA
8717.1.1.46
10 Letter to Winifred Nicholson, September 1931,
quoted in Sarah Jane Checkland, Ben Nicholson:The Vicious
Circles of his Life and Art, (John Murray, 2000), p.98
11 Letter to Ben Nicholson,TGA 8717.1.1.50
12 Letter to Ben Nicholson,TGA 8717.1.1.52
13 Henry Moore,The Sculptor Speaks, The Listener, 19
August 1937 quoted in Wilkinson (2002), p.197
14 Wilkinson (2002), p.197
15 See Penelope Curtis, Barbara Hepworth, (Tate, 1998),
p.33
16 Letter to Winifred Nicholson, 20 September 1931,
quoted in Sophie Bowness, 'Modernist Stone Carving in
England' in Michael Harrison (ed.), Carving Mountains,
(Kettle’s Yard, 1998), p.37
17 See Checkland (2000), p.179
1
9
List of Works
Henry Moore 1898-1986
1. Dog
1922
Marble
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
NORWICH ONLY
2. Head and Shoulders
1922
Brush and ink on cream medium-weight wove
paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
3. Carving made in the Garden of the School
House,Wighton
c. 1922
Marble
Private collection
NORWICH ONLY
12. Seated Nude
1930
Charcoal, brush, ink and wash on cream
lightweight wove paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
13. Ideas for Ironstone head
1930-1
Pencil on cream lightweight wove paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
14. Ideas for composition in Green Hornton
Stone, page from No. 1 Drawing Book
c.1930-1
Pencil on cream lightweight wove paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
4. Two Heads: Mother and Child
1923
Serpentine
Private collection
15. Figure
1931
Beech wood
Tate: purchased 1959
5. Woman with Upraised Arms
1924-5
Hopton Wood stone
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
NORWICH ONLY
16. Composition
1931
Cumberland alabaster
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of Irina Moore 1979
NORWICH ONLY
6. The Artist's Sister Mary
1926
Pen and ink and ink wash on paper
Private collection
7. Notebook No.6 [Facsimile] open to
'Miscellaneous Sketches'
1926
Facsimile, printed 1976
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
8. The Artist's Mother
1927
Pen, ink and wash on newspaper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
9. The Artist's Mother
1927
Pen and ink, chalk and wash on newspaper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
10. Suckling Child
1930
Alabaster
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
(Hussey Bequest, Chichester District Council, 1985)
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11. Reclining Figure
1930
Ironstone
The Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection
University of East Anglia
17. Composition
1931
Blue Hornton stone
The Henry Moore Family Collection
NORWICH ONLY
18. Sunbathing at Sizewell, page from Sizewell
Sketchpad
1931
Pencil (part rubbed) on cream lightweight wove paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
19. Ideas for Sculpture (verso)
1932
Pencil on cream lightweight wove paper
Framed with Ideas for Sculpture, HMF 943
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
20. Ideas for Sculpture (recto)
1932
Pencil on off-white lightweight wove watermarked
Basingwerk parchment
Framed with Ideas for Sculpture, HMF 951
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
21. Ideas for Abstract Composition with Holes
1933
Pencil on cream medium weight wove paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
22. Page of Several-Piece compositions
1934
Pencil, crayon on off-white lightweight wove paper
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
23. Composition
1934
Cast concrete
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
24. Hole and Lump
1934
Elmwood
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1979
25. Four-Piece Composition: Reclining Figure
1934
Cumberland alabaster
Tate: presented with assistance from
The Art Fund 1976
26. Ideas for Sculpture, Page from sketchbook B
c.1935
Pencil
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
NORWICH ONLY
27. Drawing for Sculpture: Reclining Figure
1935
Pencil, crayon, charcoal, pastel, pen and ink on
paper
The Henry Moore Family Collection
28. Carving
1936
Travertine marble
The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist 1977
29. Square Form
1936
Green Hornton stone
The Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection
University of East Anglia
Barbara Hepworth 1903-197
30. Head
1930
Cumberland stone
New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester
31. Sculpture with Profiles
1932
Alabaster
Tate: bequeathed by Mrs Helen Margaret Murray
in memory of her husband
Frederick Lewis Staite Murray 1992
32. Studies for Sculpture (Profile Heads)
c.1932
Pencil on paper
Mounted on board with Three Studies for
Sculpture
Private Collection
33. Three Studies for Sculpture
c.1932
Pencil on paper
Mounted on board with Studies for Sculpture
(Profile Heads)
Private Collection
34. Form with Hole
1932
Pencil on paper
Hepworth Estate
35. St Rémy: Mountains and Trees I
1933
Pencil on paper
British Museum, London
36. Single Form
1934
Ironstone
Private collection
37. Mother and Child
1934
Pink Ancaster stone
The Hepworth Wakefield
38. Mother and Child
1934
Cumberland alabaster
Tate: purchased with assistance from the
friends of the Tate Gallery 1993
39. Mother and Child
1934
Ironstone
Private collection
40. Three Forms
1935
Serravezza marble
Tate: presented by
Mr & Mrs J.R. Marcus Brumwell 1964
SHEFFIELD ONLY
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41. Pierced Hemisphere I
1937
Marble
The Hepworth Wakefield
42. Conoid, Sphere and Hollow II
1937
Marble
Government Art Collection
Ben Nicholson 1894-1982
43. 1932 (painting)
1932
Oil, pencil, and gesso on board
Tate: presented by Dame Barbara Hepworth 1970
44. 1932 (Still life with Guitar)
1932
Oil on board
Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery)
45. St Rémy Provence
1933
Oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery
John Skeaping 1901-1980
49. Seated Nude - Barbara Hepworth
c.1928
Pencil and contë crayon on paper
Private collection courtesy England & Co.
50. Seated Woman
c.1929
Marble
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery
51. Fish
1929-30
Ironstone on serpentine base
Tate: purchased 1992
52. Duck
1930
Ironstone
Private collection
53. Buffalo
1930
Lapis lazuli
Tate: transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum,
1983
46. 1934 (relief design)
1934
Oil and incised coloured card on board
Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
54. Torso
1930
Ironstone
Pallant House Gallery
(on long term loan from a Private Collection)
47. 1934 (relief version 1)
1934
Oil on carved board
Private collection
Ivon Hitchens 1893-1979
48. 1936 (white relief)
1936
Oil and pencil on carved board
Private collection
55. Henry Moore at Work in his Parkhill Studio
c.1929
Oil on canvas
Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery)
The exhibition is organised by Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service with the support of the Henry Moore
Foundation and the East Anglia Art Fund, in partnership with Museums Sheffield. It includes loans from national,
regional and private lenders throughout the UK.
Front cover
Henry Moore, Notebook No.6 [Facsimile] open to 'Miscellaneous Sketches', 1926.
The Henry Moore Foundation archive
Photographic credits
Work by Barbara Hepworth reproduced by permission of Bowness, Hepworth Estate
All photographs of Henry Moore and his work have been reproduced by permission of The Henry Moore Foundation
Work by Ben Nicholson © Angela Verren Taunt 200x. All rights reserved, DACS 2008
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