Henry Moore O.M., C.H. (British, 1898-1986)


Shelter Drawing signed and dated 'Moore/42' (lower right)pencil, wax crayon, coloured crayon, watercolour wash, pen and ink and gouache38.1 x 27.9 cm. (15 x 11 in.)HMF no.1858
|ProvenanceWith The Reid Gallery, London (as Sleepers in a Shelter)Aimée Goldberg, LondonHer sale; Christie's, London, 2 December 1986, lot 141 (as Sleepers in a Shelter, £46,830), where acquired by Marlborough Fine Art, London, on behalf of the family of the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.ExhibitedLondon, Marlbourough Fine Art, A Tribute to Henry Moore, 14 May-26 June 1987, cat.no.7LiteratureAnn Garrould (ed.), Henry Moore, Volume 3, Complete Drawings 1940-49, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Much Hadham & London, 2001, p.108, cat.no.AG.42.12 (ill.b&w)In a radio broadcast on September 3rd 1939 Neville Chamberlain informed the nation that Britain was at war with Germany. It prompted a sanguine response from Henry Moore and his wife Irina who jumped in their car and drove to the coast near Dover for a swim under the iconic cliffs. Moore recorded his feelings that day in what must be one of the earliest interpretations of the conflict, a haunting drawing titled September 3rd, which depicts a group of female bathers standing in the same water, their heads akin to gasmasks, staring stoically outwards towards continental Europe. It is difficult today to comprehend the feelings that must have been running through the forty-one year old sculptor's mind as he contemplated an inevitable change in artistic direction brought about by factors beyond his control. By this point Moore was an established artist who had begun to cement his reputation in broader international circles and especially France and Germany. Despite its island status, Britain was vulnerable to German military might with the arrival of the Luftwaffe a sobering prospect given the weak and ill prepared anti-aircraft defences. Naturally, the attention of the authorities turned to how best protect people during air raids and the different methods of shelter. The ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Committee issued copies of a booklet titled The Protection of your Home against Air Raids to every household in the country and several different methods of shelter were proposed. Anderson shelters held no more than six people and were made of prefabricated sections dug into the ground, with a curved roof protected by a thick layer of earth or sandbags. They were popular with homeowners themselves and considered perfect for families with gardens. For those in more built up areas that consisted of long rows of terraced houses or council-owned tenement blocks, surface shelters of brick and concrete were constructed to hold greater numbers. Of course, a large number of people were committed to remaining in their homes and using the Morrison shelter, a form of metal-framed table underneath which a person was protected by steel mesh. Despite being a painfully obvious target, London's underground tube network offered an instinctive and relatively secure environment for the capitals inhabitants which was not available to those of other targeted cities. During the intensity of the Blitz, deep shelter was found in the tube each night by approximately 100,000 Londoners. Henry Moore stumbled across shelterers at Belsize Park tube station after an evening out in the West End with his wife on September 11th, 1940. The artist recollected what was clearly a remarkable sight, 'We stayed there for an hour and I was fascinated by the sight of people camping out deep under the ground. I had never seen so many reclining figures and even the holes out of which the 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.' (Henry Moore quoted in Julian Andrews, London's War, The Shelter Drawings of Henry Moore, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2002, p.36). This experience proved to be the inspiration for what would become known as the 'Shelter Drawings' from which the present work belongs. Dating to 1942, Shelter Drawing (Sleepers in a Shelter) depicts a group of individuals resting as best they can on a hard and uncomfortable floor whilst mayhem reigns around them. The viewer is placed in the same position as the artist may have been whilst sketching, directly above and looking down. It is easy to see why the subject appealed to Moore who is able to draw, as he does here, on the two central themes that dominated his art, that being the mother and child and reclining figure. The mother, who is awake, casts a protective arm around her sleeping child who she carefully and perhaps anxiously observes whilst the man next to them emerges into the pictorial space at seemingly deep rest. The figures beyond appear in one sense on top of one another, further adding to the sense of cramped conditions, but also receding down through the tunnel space. Their appearance contrasts with the distinctive group in the foreground and is a striking example of the artist's sectional line technique, the effect of which gives a startling, skeletal appearance to the lying bodies almost as though we are looking at the ribcage of a ghostly corpse. By employing this method, Moore sharply contrasts the fine line between life and death, thus aptly portraying the atmosphere of the moment. Shelter Drawing (Sleepers in a Shelter) belongs to a short lived but intense period of Henry Moore's life where a distinct body of work quite separate to his usual practice evolved. The War Artist's Advisory Committee under the guidance of Kenneth Clark acquired thirty-one Shelter Drawings by the end of the war which as in the present example are powerful depictions of the experience of survival.