Lot Essay
Moore originally conceived Internal and External Forms as a monumental wood carving of almost ten feet high. Initially unable to find a section of wood large enough, he increased the size of the plaster maquette to cast the composition in bronze, although two years later he did succeed in carving the work in elm. (LH297; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo)
In 1937, Moore praised Brancusi for making "us once more shape-conscious" by using such forms as the egg, which the latter employed for its sculptural simplicity. Moore now wanted to take this quest a stage further, opening up his shapes to display their interiors, with the varied sections and planes formed by the inner figure. Moore had developed these ideas during the late 1930's and 1940's in such works as Two Standing Figures (HMF1517, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), seen by the artist as a progression from the helmets he had previously executed, one form acting as protection for another. As Moore himself wrote:
I suppose in my mind was also the Mother and Child idea and of birth and the child in the embryo. All these things are connected in this interior and exterior idea. (J. Hedgecoe and H. Moore, Henry Moore, London, 1968, p. 198)
The analytical psychologist Erich Neumann also noted the connection between Moore's internal and external forms and the image of a mother protecting her unborn child:
It is no accident that this figure reminds us of those Egyptian sarcophagi in the form of mummies, showing the mother goddess as the sheltering womb that holds and contains the dead man like a child again as at the beginning. Mother of life, mother of death, and all-embracing body-self, the archetypal mother of man's germinal ego consciousness -- this truly great sculpture of Moore's is al1 these in one. (E. Neumann, The Archetypal World of Henry Moore, London, 1959, p. 128)
Finally, Moore noted the similarity between the internal/external compositions and flowers, explaining, "Petals...enclose the stamen of a flower. Besides acting as a protection, they provide an attraction." (exh. cat., The Tate Gallery 1978-80, Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London, 1981, p. 119)
In 1937, Moore praised Brancusi for making "us once more shape-conscious" by using such forms as the egg, which the latter employed for its sculptural simplicity. Moore now wanted to take this quest a stage further, opening up his shapes to display their interiors, with the varied sections and planes formed by the inner figure. Moore had developed these ideas during the late 1930's and 1940's in such works as Two Standing Figures (HMF1517, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), seen by the artist as a progression from the helmets he had previously executed, one form acting as protection for another. As Moore himself wrote:
I suppose in my mind was also the Mother and Child idea and of birth and the child in the embryo. All these things are connected in this interior and exterior idea. (J. Hedgecoe and H. Moore, Henry Moore, London, 1968, p. 198)
The analytical psychologist Erich Neumann also noted the connection between Moore's internal and external forms and the image of a mother protecting her unborn child:
It is no accident that this figure reminds us of those Egyptian sarcophagi in the form of mummies, showing the mother goddess as the sheltering womb that holds and contains the dead man like a child again as at the beginning. Mother of life, mother of death, and all-embracing body-self, the archetypal mother of man's germinal ego consciousness -- this truly great sculpture of Moore's is al1 these in one. (E. Neumann, The Archetypal World of Henry Moore, London, 1959, p. 128)
Finally, Moore noted the similarity between the internal/external compositions and flowers, explaining, "Petals...enclose the stamen of a flower. Besides acting as a protection, they provide an attraction." (exh. cat., The Tate Gallery 1978-80, Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London, 1981, p. 119)