Seated Woman

Part of a larger series, Seated Woman was created by Henry Moore between 1958 and 1959 but not cast in bronze until 1975. Often conveying the archetype of the “Great Mother” and using a mature female form, Moore describes his robust figures as a symbol of strength. This Seated Woman has recognizable but disfigured human qualities and is a rather simplified, cubist form with a flat back, small head, blunted appendages, and a bulbous skirt. The surface texture was created using a trowel on the wet plaster, reminiscent of the strokes Moore used to massage his mothers back as she suffered from rheumatism.

Throughout his life, Henry Moore (1898-1986) was fascinated with studying and understanding the human figure, particularly the female form. Much of Moore’s work fits the archetype of the “Great Mother,” symbolizing fertility, nurture, and security, as he acquired a sense of stability and protection from his own mother. He modeled many of his figures after the form of a mature woman and describes their robustness as strength, not representing body size. The curvaceous, nude female figure can be traced back to some of his earliest drawings in the 1920s, which drew inspiration from French artist Paul Cézanne’s painting Bathers. 

In the mid-1950s to early-60s, Moore sculpted a large series of seated women, some with realistic features and some abstract. The series was inspired after his commission for the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris. Moore produced several drawings in consideration of form and arrangement for the work, but during this period he was starting to produce small, three-dimensional models called maquettes, which allowed him to work “in the round” and easily scale up in size. He created eleven maquettes of varying figures between 1955 and 1956, including single female forms and groups of figures. This work for UNESCO resulted in his largest Reclining Figure yet and inspired the series of the Seated Woman, which was created in the years directly following. 

This particular model of Seated Woman (LH440) was created in 1958-59 but not cast until 1975. The figure’s small head is alert and emphasizes the voluminous body. During the creation of the maquette, the shape of the upper body was formed by smashing wet plaster in his hands. Once the form was enlarged, a trowel was used to achieve the deep texture of the surface and is reminiscent of Moore’s childhood memory of massaging his mothers back as she suffered from rheumatism. In one recollection Moore stated, “She had a strong, solid figure, and I remember, as I massaged her with some embarrassment, the sensation it gave me going across her shoulder blades and then down and across the backbone. I had the sense of an expanse of flatness yet within it a hard projection of bone. My mother’s back meant a lot to me.” 

Gallery Label 

By the late 1950s, Henry Moore had begun to move away from literal depictions of the female figure to more abstract representations as seen in Seated Woman. Robust and fecund, this sculpture recalls smaller scale depictions of earth mother goddesses from prehistoric times. Seated Woman's rich, textural surface records Moore's process, documenting the way he applied wet plaster with a trowel to create the original sculpture, from which this bronze work was cast.

Seated Woman was a gift of the Hall Family Foundation.

Museum Label, Seated Woman, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Accessed July 7th 2022. https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/10069/seated-woman.

Seated Woman (LH 440 cast 3), Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue. Accessed September 20th, 2022. https://catalogue.henry-moore.org/objects/17983/seated-woman.

Seated Woman (LH 440 cast 0), Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue. Accessed September 20th, 2022. https://catalogue.henry-moore.org/objects/22922/seated-woman.

Alice Correia, ‘Seated Woman 1957 by Henry Moore OM, CH’, catalogue entry, November 2013, in Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity, Tate Research Publication, 2015. Accessed September 20th, 2022. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/henry-moore/henry-moore-om-ch-seated-woman-r1172010.