30 July: Henry Moore

Sculptor Henry Moore was born on 30th July 1898 in Castleford in Yorkshire. He is known for his large bronze sculptures, usually abstract versions of the human form which often contain hollow spaces. Many of his sculptures are public artworks. Here are some things you might not know about him:

1. He was the seventh of eight children born to a Yorkshire coal miner. His father wanted his children to have a better life than working in a coalmine, and encouraged them to pursue higher education.
2. Henry Moore decided he wanted to become a sculptor at the age of eleven. He had a gift for art at school. However, his father disapproved of this choice of career, because it seemed to him to be too much like manual labour. So he encouraged Henry to become a teacher instead. He taught at his old school in Castleford.
3. He didn't like teaching much, and when the First World War broke out, he joined up. He he was badly injured during a gas attack in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, and spent the rest of the war as a PT instructor.
4. His injury had some benefit, though, because he qualified for an ex-serviceman’s grant, which he used to go to art school. In 1919 he became a student at Leeds School of Art, working in the sculpture studio set up especially for him. During his time there, he met another sculptor, Barbara Hepworth, who became a friend as well as a professional rival.
5. He went on to attend the Royal College of Art in London in 1921, where he later taught. It was here he met his wife, Irina Radetsky, They married in 1929.
6. During World War 2, Henry Moore was commissioned as a war artist. He drew Londoners sheltering from air raids in the London Underground.
7. When his flat was bombed in 1940, he and Irina moved to Perry Green in Hertfordshire. They bought a farmhouse, Hoglands, where they would live for the rest of their lives. Moore developed outbuildings into studios while Irina created beautiful gardens.
8. Henry Moore's middle name is Spencer.
9. Wishing to create a legacy, Henry Moore gave away a lot of his sculptures with the condition that they be installed in public places. He also accepted commissions to produce sculptures for public places. Some of the places his work was installed include outside the Paris UNESCO building, and London’s Parliament Square.
10. His work wasn't always appreciated by the people he intended it for. He sold a sculpture called Draped Seated Woman (nicknamed Old Flo) to London County Council at a reduced price on condition it was placed in a socially deprived area so the people living there could have some art. It was placed on a council estate in Tower Hamlets. Not everyone there appreciated it – it was vandalised and eventually moved to a sculpture park in Yorkshire.

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