Seated Woman: Torso (HMF 82(317)), 1982

Raymond Spencer Company Limited, United Kingdom Dominion Gallery, Montreal Christie’s, auction, London, 21 November 2001, lot 174 Estate of Robert Noakes

Ann Garrould (ed.), "Henry Moore, VI: Complete Drawings 1982-83", London, 1994, page 86

In Henry Moore’s early life drawings, the British artist uses a rapid, quick line and watercolour wash to capture the essence of a figure on the page while simultaneously creating something modern and timeless. At the beginning of his artistic career, Moore would often draw his mother on newsprint at the kitchen table, enabling him to examine the weight and proportion of a human body more closely. His technique was influenced by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who recorded the spontaneous movements of his subjects by drawing in a continuous line to capture fully the dynamism of their bodies. Moore would have been introduced to his oeuvre during his art studies in Leeds in 1919. In this later work, the artist depicted a nude woman at rest, the outline of her form delineated by thick graphite marks on the sheet. Shown at close range, the contours of her graceful form and their shadows dominate the composition. This work is recorded in the Henry Moore Foundation Archive as no. HMF 82 (317).