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Lot Essay
From 7 September 1940 to 16 May 1941 the Luftwaffe undertook a campaign of predominantly night-time bombing raids on major British cities and coastal sites. To escape the bombings and find shelter in London, citizens would find refuge in underground stations. Moore first witnessed these improvised air-raid shelters when he became trapped in Belsize Park station when visiting friends, five days after the Blitz began. The sight of so many reclining figures, framed by the arches of the tube tunnels, reminded Moore of his own sculptures. Thus began one of Moore’s most applauded series of drawings, which started as rough drawings in two sketchbooks. The First Shelter Sketchbook comprises 67 pages of studies (The British Museum, London), and the Second Shelter Sketchbook contains 95 drawings (Henry Moore Foundation).
Woman in an Underground Shelter Feeding a Child draws together two of Moore’s most recognisable subjects: the temporary air-raid shelters of the Blitz and the mother and child motif. Moore himself describes the mother and child as a ‘fundamental obsession’ that began in 1922 and re-occurred throughout the artist’s oeuvre (H. Moore, quoted in exhibition catalogue, Mother and Child: The Art of Henry Moore, New York, Hofstra Museum, 1987, p. 27). Whilst many of Moore’s mother and child pieces show them as archetypal, symbolic figures, the present drawing is a more personal, individual depiction of a parent feeding and protecting their child. When describing the crowds in the shelters, Moore mentions the ‘intimate little touches’ he witnessed, such as ‘children fast asleep with trains roaring past’ (H. Moore, quoted in C. Lichtenstern, Henry Moore: Work Theory Impact, London, 2008, pp. 107-08). Woman in an Underground Shelter Feeding a Child is one of these moments of humanity in the face of conflict. The sensitivity that distinguishes Moore’s war work had a profound impact on the artist, who in later years explained how ‘without the war, which directed one to life itself, I think I would have been a far less sensitive and responsible person ... The war brought out and encouraged the humanist side in one’s work’ (Moore, quoted in R. Berthoud, The Life of Henry Moore, London, 1987, p. 176).
In 1941 Moore was commissioned to create further shelter drawings by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, which was spear-headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. The present lot is one of these drawings, which were responsible for introducing Moore to a wider audience and established him as a household name. In 1941 Moore would use the petrol allowance that he was given as an official war artist, to drive to London and document the scenes he witnessed during the Blitz. A special permit granted him permission to enter and stay in any tube station, where he would make notes on what he saw, before returning to the studio to sketch the scenes from memory. These sketches then formed the basis for more complete compositions, like this one, which were rendered in a complex multi-media technique, comprising of layers of wax resist with pen and ink drawing. When describing the series, Herbert Read praised how Moore conveys the ‘fear, expectancy, boredom, lassitude, mutual love, and protection’ experienced by the victims of war (Henry Moore, New York, 1966, pp. 142-143). Woman in an Underground Shelter Feeding a Child is one of these moments of mutual love and protection, when the conflict of the Second World War had become a direct reality for those on the home-front.
Woman in an Underground Shelter Feeding a Child draws together two of Moore’s most recognisable subjects: the temporary air-raid shelters of the Blitz and the mother and child motif. Moore himself describes the mother and child as a ‘fundamental obsession’ that began in 1922 and re-occurred throughout the artist’s oeuvre (H. Moore, quoted in exhibition catalogue, Mother and Child: The Art of Henry Moore, New York, Hofstra Museum, 1987, p. 27). Whilst many of Moore’s mother and child pieces show them as archetypal, symbolic figures, the present drawing is a more personal, individual depiction of a parent feeding and protecting their child. When describing the crowds in the shelters, Moore mentions the ‘intimate little touches’ he witnessed, such as ‘children fast asleep with trains roaring past’ (H. Moore, quoted in C. Lichtenstern, Henry Moore: Work Theory Impact, London, 2008, pp. 107-08). Woman in an Underground Shelter Feeding a Child is one of these moments of humanity in the face of conflict. The sensitivity that distinguishes Moore’s war work had a profound impact on the artist, who in later years explained how ‘without the war, which directed one to life itself, I think I would have been a far less sensitive and responsible person ... The war brought out and encouraged the humanist side in one’s work’ (Moore, quoted in R. Berthoud, The Life of Henry Moore, London, 1987, p. 176).
In 1941 Moore was commissioned to create further shelter drawings by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, which was spear-headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. The present lot is one of these drawings, which were responsible for introducing Moore to a wider audience and established him as a household name. In 1941 Moore would use the petrol allowance that he was given as an official war artist, to drive to London and document the scenes he witnessed during the Blitz. A special permit granted him permission to enter and stay in any tube station, where he would make notes on what he saw, before returning to the studio to sketch the scenes from memory. These sketches then formed the basis for more complete compositions, like this one, which were rendered in a complex multi-media technique, comprising of layers of wax resist with pen and ink drawing. When describing the series, Herbert Read praised how Moore conveys the ‘fear, expectancy, boredom, lassitude, mutual love, and protection’ experienced by the victims of war (Henry Moore, New York, 1966, pp. 142-143). Woman in an Underground Shelter Feeding a Child is one of these moments of mutual love and protection, when the conflict of the Second World War had become a direct reality for those on the home-front.