Standing Figures. 1949. by Henry Moore, 1898-1986

Henry Moore, 1898-1986
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Standing Figures. 1949.

Original lithograph (or collograph) in colours. 1949. Signed in pencil. Dated '49 in pencil. Numbered (36) in pencil from the edition of 75 impressions. Printed at Ganymed Press, 1950. Issued by Ganymed Editions, London 1951.
Ref: Cramer - Henry Moore, The Graphic Work no 9. The most important print from Moore's earliest period.

Superb impression with excellent fresh colours. On pale cream cartridge paper. Excexellent condition - a faint trace of old tape at the extreme sheet corners. Good margins. Sheet: 16 5/8 x 20 ins. Image overall: 14 7/8 x 18 1/2ins. (378x470mm).

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?Standing Figures? is the most important of the group of major prints which Moore drew in 1949-50. These were the first great statement of his aesthetic ideas in a graphic medium. In ?Standing Figures? he uses for the first time the idea of the linked sequence of studies so that as the eye moves from one form to the next it builds up the sensation of three dimensions. It is a compositional idea which is to become pivotal in Moore?s drawing and printmaking.

In ?Standing Figures? Moore also reviews all the great themes of his standing sculpture at that date, the draped and hollow figures, the family group, the symbol of the ?mother figure?. Each figure is contrasted to the one at its side yet seems to link to it, and in this way Moore emphasised the overall coherence of his art.

For ?Standing Figures' Moore chose to work in a medium which was virtually his own invention, what has now come to be called the collograph. Drawing directly on plastic plates, with each colour separated in the manner of lithography, the images were built up and transferred to a collotype plate. What particularly appealed to Moore was the sensitivity of the plate which allowed gradations of colour and a finer ?spattering? of colour than was possible on a conventional lithographic stone. Moore used the technique for just three prints in 1949 before abandoning it is too complex and time-consuming.