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拍品專文
This drawing belongs to Moore's body of work that he executed between autumn 1940 and the summer of 1941, in which he depicted Londoners Sheltering from bombing during World War II.
During September 1940, Moore and his wife were returning by tube to Hampstead on the Northern Line, when they came across a multitude of people sheltering at Belsize Park station. He wrote, 'We stayed there for an hour and I was fascinated by the sight of people camping out deep under ground. I had never seen so many reclining figures and even the holes out of which the tube trains were coming seemed to me like the holes in my sculpture. And there were intimate little touches. Children fast asleep, with trains roaring past only a couple of yards away. People who were obviously strangers to one another forming tight little intimate groups. They were cut off from what was happening up above, but they were aware of it. There was tension in the air' (see J. Andrews, London's War, The Shelter Drawings of Henry Moore, Aldershot, 2002, p. 36).
The impression that the scene left on Moore compelled him to return the next day to sketch such a scene, and even after he had moved from Hampstead to Perry Green, Hertfordshire, he continued to travel to London two or three times a week to observe and make sketches of people sheltering.
By January 1941, Moore had been approached by the WAAC (War Artists Advisory Committee), chaired by Kenneth Clark, to present a series of works depicting civil defences and with this semi-official status, he was able to obtain a permit to visit different London shelters. These were extensive throughout the London Underground system and Julian Andrews comments, 'In Moving around the Underground system looking for interesting shelters Moore would have stayed mainly on the deep tube lines, the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and Northern. These often average a depth of around sixty feet below ground level in the centre of London, the deepest of all being the Central Line at Holborn which reaches a depth of one hundred feet. None of the bombs being used by the Germans could penetrate to these levels, though a number of tube stations did get hit, including Bank, Camden Town and Trafalgar Square (now part of Charing Cross) in the centre, and Balham on the southern branch of the Northern Line, where a flood of mud swamped a platform causing many deaths. Moore's progress through the tubes can be followed in the drawings, but it should be remembered that he also visited some surface shelters, notable the huge warehouse basement known as Tilbury' (ibid. pp. 42-3).
The composition and perspective in these drawings varies greatly, some showing rows of rounded sleeping figures, some single figures, some focusing on the receding tube tunnel and other sheets are multiple studies of single figures. The present work depicts two seated figures, with tunnels receding behind and the suggestion of figures, lying down, on the left hand side. Julian Andrews comments, 'The final group of drawings returns to the concept of transformation that informs so much of Moore's work ... But in the later Shelter Drawings the figures are no longer reclining. They are seated, occasionally still on the ground, but more often on some kind of indeterminate seat or bench. In several of the drawings this seems to take on the function of a throne, since the figures have an air of majesty (ibid., p. 132).
During September 1940, Moore and his wife were returning by tube to Hampstead on the Northern Line, when they came across a multitude of people sheltering at Belsize Park station. He wrote, 'We stayed there for an hour and I was fascinated by the sight of people camping out deep under ground. I had never seen so many reclining figures and even the holes out of which the tube trains were coming seemed to me like the holes in my sculpture. And there were intimate little touches. Children fast asleep, with trains roaring past only a couple of yards away. People who were obviously strangers to one another forming tight little intimate groups. They were cut off from what was happening up above, but they were aware of it. There was tension in the air' (see J. Andrews, London's War, The Shelter Drawings of Henry Moore, Aldershot, 2002, p. 36).
The impression that the scene left on Moore compelled him to return the next day to sketch such a scene, and even after he had moved from Hampstead to Perry Green, Hertfordshire, he continued to travel to London two or three times a week to observe and make sketches of people sheltering.
By January 1941, Moore had been approached by the WAAC (War Artists Advisory Committee), chaired by Kenneth Clark, to present a series of works depicting civil defences and with this semi-official status, he was able to obtain a permit to visit different London shelters. These were extensive throughout the London Underground system and Julian Andrews comments, 'In Moving around the Underground system looking for interesting shelters Moore would have stayed mainly on the deep tube lines, the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and Northern. These often average a depth of around sixty feet below ground level in the centre of London, the deepest of all being the Central Line at Holborn which reaches a depth of one hundred feet. None of the bombs being used by the Germans could penetrate to these levels, though a number of tube stations did get hit, including Bank, Camden Town and Trafalgar Square (now part of Charing Cross) in the centre, and Balham on the southern branch of the Northern Line, where a flood of mud swamped a platform causing many deaths. Moore's progress through the tubes can be followed in the drawings, but it should be remembered that he also visited some surface shelters, notable the huge warehouse basement known as Tilbury' (ibid. pp. 42-3).
The composition and perspective in these drawings varies greatly, some showing rows of rounded sleeping figures, some single figures, some focusing on the receding tube tunnel and other sheets are multiple studies of single figures. The present work depicts two seated figures, with tunnels receding behind and the suggestion of figures, lying down, on the left hand side. Julian Andrews comments, 'The final group of drawings returns to the concept of transformation that informs so much of Moore's work ... But in the later Shelter Drawings the figures are no longer reclining. They are seated, occasionally still on the ground, but more often on some kind of indeterminate seat or bench. In several of the drawings this seems to take on the function of a throne, since the figures have an air of majesty (ibid., p. 132).