Reclining Figure: Bone Skirt

The reclining figure was a self proclaimed obsession with Henry Moore. He created his first work on the theme in 1924 and was to tirelessly explore and develop the idea throughout his career. "He once said that there are three fundamental poses of the human figure, standing, seated and lying down; that the reclining pose gives the most freedom, compositionally and spatially; that it is free and stable at the same time; that it has repose" (H. Moore as quoted in R. Melville, Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings, New York 1971, p. 261).

In the present work the depiction of the figure is unusally realistic, as Moore exploits form to convey almost geometric folds in her skirt. The intimate dimensions of the languid figure are empowered by its elegant placement in the centre of a generous base.