Beschreibung:

Property from the Triton Collection Foundation Henry Moore Follow Two Three-Quarter Figures on Base incised with the artist's signature and numbered 'Moore 2/9' on the base bronze 101 x 53.7 x 36.2 cm (39 3/4 x 21 1/8 x 14 1/4 in.) Cast in 1984, this work is number 2 from an edition of 9 plus 1 artist's proof. This work is recorded in the archives of the Henry Moore Foundation.
Provenance Philip and Muriel Berman Collection, United States (acquired directly from the artist on 26 June 1984) Sotheby's, New York, 5 November 2004, lot 278 Private Collection, Europe Sotheby's, New York, 6 May 2009, lot 122 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited Collegeville, Ursinus College, The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, A Passion for Art. Selections from the Berman Collection, 22 October - 22 December 1989, p. 50 (illustrated) Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Henry Moore 1898 - 1986 , 12 April - 9 August 1992, no. 127, p. 151 (another example exhibited and illustrated) Collegeville, Ursinus College, The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Henry Moore Relationships. Drawings, Prints and Sculptures from the Muriel and Philip Berman Collection , 1993 - 1994 Literature Claude Allemand-Cosneau, Manfred Fath and David Mitchinson, Henry Moore From the Inside Out. Plaster, Carvings and Drawings, Munich, 1996, no. 86, p. 149 (plaster example illustrated) Alan Bowness, Henry Moore Complete Sculpture 1980 - 86 , vol. 6, London, 1999, no. 539b, pl. 32 and 33, p. 32 (another example illustrated) Catalogue Essay Totemic in appearance, Moore’s Two Three-Quarter Figures on Base is exemplary of the prolific artist’s iconic sculptural enquiry into natural forms and movement, captured exquisitely in the medium of bronze. Housed in the collection of Philip and Muriel Berman for twenty years and purchased directly from the artist in 1984, the same year as the work's execution, the Berman's collected and donated a wide variety of Old Master and 20th century masterpieces to public collections. Serving as chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1989 until his death in 1997, Phillip Berman and his wife founded the Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, displaying their unwavering passion to pioneer ground-breaking sculpture. Another cast of Two Three-Quarter Figures on Base is held in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, gifted by the The Hall Family Foundation. Paradigmatic of Moore’s iconic oeuvre, the two figures in the present work peer gracefully upon their surroundings, anthropomorphic in their curved sweeping forms, transcending time and place. Executed in 1984, Two Three-Quarter Figures on Base displays Moore’s formal rendering of two forms, both elongated and balanced through the artist’s adroit attention to his three-dimensional composition. Perched on a textured base, cast from Moore’s rare experimentations with cork, the curvilinear edges of the figures’ bodies form sloping shoulders, delicate waists and swan-like necks. The figures’ heads are vigilantly perched, crafted with beak-like noses to convey a sense of alert awareness and tenderness. Their protruding busts and delicately arched backs instil a sense of movement, as if the figures may stretch and turn through the lithe nature of their limber bodies. Positioned at an angle, facing inwards, the figures gazes cross past each other into the distance, however both figures appear intrinsically linked through their posture and shared tranquillity. Through Moore’s expert mastery of bronze and acutely ordered composition, the figures’ stasis seems to fluctuate as we move around the sculpture, bringing a sense of movement and narrative to the two forms. Although anonymous, the two anthropoid figures possess feminine elements through their robust yet subtle curvature. Through the intuitively rendered feminine attributes and upright position, the present work echoes Moore’s earlier monumental Darley Dale sandstone carving, Three Standing Figures, a work initially created with the Museum of Modern Art in mind but later exhibited in 1948 at the Art’s Council of Great Britain’s Open Air Exhibition of Sculpture in Battersea Park where the carving has remained in situ ever since. The Battersea Park work has become an iconic and visionary celebration of the tenacious spirit of Londoners during wartime,