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Henry Moore 1898-1986 Maquette for Reclining Figure, Conceived in 1945 Inscribed 'Moore' Bronze. Cast before 1963 in an edition of 7 plus 1 artist proof. 4 1/8 x 6 7/8 x 3 1/8 in, 10.2 x 17.4 x 7.7 cm Provenance Moos Gallery, Toronto Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York Nelson & Happy Rockefeller, USA (acquired from the above 27 December 1963) Literature David Sylvester, ed., Henry Moore Sculpture and Drawings 1921-1948, vol. 1, London, 1969, no.242, illus. of the terracotta version p.15 Living with Irish Art: New Sculpture and Drawings by Henry Moore, London, Leicester Galleries, 1946, no.3, illus. of another cast At the end of the Second World War, Henry Moore was at one of the most important and influential stages in his career, taking on several major outdoor sculpture commissions including Memorial Figure (1945-46) for Dartington Hall, Devon. Richard Cork has described Memorial Figure as 'stoical as well as sad... Intact, harmonious and entirely unruffled, she presides over her surroundings with a mellowness'. Carved from Hornton stone, Memorial Figure was intended as a memorial to Christopher Martin, Dartington Hall's first arts administrator and a close friend of Moore's. Maquette for a Reclining Figure is one of two studies for this pivotal commission and marks a new found classicism in Moore's oeuvre. The reclining figure is perhaps Moore's most iconic subject and became the defining image of Modern British Art in the post-war period. Moore had moved beyond the angular and surrealistic abstraction of the 1930s, to create works imbued with a deep sense of dignity and permanence, more attune with classical sculpture. This sense of monumentality and grandeur provoked a huge response from younger generations of artists such as the 'Geometry of Fear' school, who had a rawer and more fractured artistic response to post- war society. This maquette was previously owned by Nelson A. Rockefeller, President of the Museum of Modern Art. Rockefeller was instrumental in creating the current MoMA building and had an outstanding collection of modern art.