Reclining Figures

English artist Henry Moore is most known for his abstracted sculptures of reclining women, some of which are held in the collections of major museums including the Tate in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Inspired by natural formations such as bones, rocks, and mountain ranges, Moore began depicting reclining figures in 1924, exploring the form in his sketches and sculptures. Though Moore began with wood and stone, he chose to cast his works in metal beginning in the late 1930s so that he could create multiple versions of a single design. In 1951, Moore debuted his monumental Reclining Figure: Festival, a bronze work from an edition of five, in London’s newly built South Bank—a public sculpture that symbolized the resilience of Britain after World War II. The work later set Moore’s auction record, reaching over $30 million at Christie’s in 2016.