Helmet Heads: Exterior Forms (Interior). 1950.
Mixed media. Gouache, watercolor wash, black chalk, ink and pencil.
Lower right signed and dated, barely legibly inscribed "Interior & Exterior Forms (Interiors)" in top center. On off-white wove paper. 29 x 23.2 cm (11.4 x 9.1 in), size of sheet.
With a few more ink pen drawings on the reverse. Pp. 111 and 112 from Henry Moore's sketchbook 1950-51. [CH].

• Besides sculptures, drawings with a sculptural approach to the human form also occupy an important position in his oeuvre.
• By integrating a smaller form into a larger one, Moore's 'inner and outer forms' are related to elements of his mother-and-child motifs.
• Moore also found inspiration for the integration of smaller forms in prehistoric tools and sculptures from Papua New Guinea (among others at the British Museum, London).

The work is registered at the Henry Moore Foundation, Hertfordshire, under the number HMF 2664a.

PROVENANCE: Fischer Fine Art Ltd., London.
Dr. Theo Maier-Mohr Collection (acquired from the above in 1985).
Ever since family-owned.

LITERATURE: Ann Garrould, Henry Moore. Complete Drawings, vol. 4 (1950-1976), London/Much Hadham 2003, no. AG 50-51.48 (illu. in black and white).
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Tobias Capwell, Hannah Higham (ed.), ex. cat. Henry Moore. The Helmet Heads, Wallace Collection, London 2019, p. 81 (illu. in black and white, no. 36).

"It is not possible to write about Henry Moore's drawings without also writing about his sculptures. His best drawings are studies for sculptural ideas."
Kenneth Clark, 1974, from: ex. cat. Henry Moore. Ursprung und Vollendung, Munich 1996, p. 70.

"There are three recurring themes in my work: 'mother and child', the 'reclining figure' and the 'inner and outer forms'. In some figures two or even all three themes find realization.“
Henry Moore, from: ex. cat. Henry Moore. Ursprung und Vollendung, Munich 1996, p. 12.

"The inside [is] actually a figure and the outer shell resembles an armor through which it could be protected in battle. I suppose I also had the thought of mother and child in mind and also of birth and the child as an embryo. This is all connected to thoughts of 'inside and outside'."
Henry Moore, in: Philip James (ed.), Über die Plastik. Ein Bildhauer sieht seine Kunst, Munich 1972, p. 275.

Elaborate early drawing in good condition. Sheet with small creases in the margins, mainly in the left margin and in the upper left and lower right corners. Small creases in the lower left and in the lower left margins. Three small, professionally closed tears (approx. 0.4 to 1.1 cm) in the left edge of the sheet. Isolated tiny brown spots.