Sheep Piece

While gazing out the studio window at his rural estate Hoglands, Henry Moore became roused by nearby grazing sheep. Inspired by the strength and protection of his own mother, Moore commonly used the concept of mother and child, as seen in Sheep Piece. He began drawing the sheep during lambing season, designing the sculpture with two ambiguous forms gently touching. Though they are large and boulder-like, the closeness of the figures evoke an affinity, perhaps leaning on one another for support. Moore used the rolling landscape at Hoglands to display his sculptures and lived there until his death. The estate is now home to the Henry Moore Foundation and many of Moore's sculptures, including the original cast of Sheep Piece as it remains where he originally sited it with grazing sheep roaming about. One of only three casts (1971-72), this sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is on loan from the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.

Owned by the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners since 1974, Sheep Piece was acquired using money bequeathed by N. Clyde Degginger, a Kansas farmer and general store manager. After his death in 1967, Mr. Degginger’s will revealed a donation of $300,000 to the city of Kansas City for the purchase of a bronze statue. A member of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art visited Hertfordshire to scout artwork, the village where English sculptor Henry Moore lived. Sheep Piece arrived in Kansas City in June 1975 but was placed in a warehouse during deliberations of where to place the work. During a brief visit in April 1976, the original site was rejected by Moore himself, in which he requested an open air setting. It was installed on the grounds of The Nelson on May 8, 1976. 

World renowned British artist Henry Moore (1898-1986) showed artistic talent as early as age 3 and became a pioneer for Modernism in sculpture. He is known for his abstract reclining figures and use of the female form. One of his common motifs of mother and child was an inspiration for Sheep Piece, as were the grazing sheep he overlooked from his maquette studio, which was converted from an outbuilding at his estate of Hoglands in Hertfordshire, England. Moore once stated, “… the lambing season had begun, and there in front of me was the mother-and-child theme.” 

Typically using human forms in his work, and occasionally animals, Moore concepted his designs through the personality or characteristics of the being. The silhouette and placement of the figures in Sheep Piece are rounded and fluid, conveying a sense of fruitfulness and a gentle dynamic. Moore describes them as, “One is solid and passive, resting firmly on the ground and strongly resistant - the other form, slightly larger and more active and powerful, but yet it leans on the lower form, needing it for support.” He first created two smaller maquettes before sculpting the present 19-by-13-foot piece in 1971-72. It was designed to complement the landscape on his farmhouse estate where the original cast is still sited today, now the location of the Henry Moore Foundation.

Sheep Piece, Henry Moore Foundation. Accessed September 2nd, 2022. https://catalogue.henry-moore.org/objects/18352/sheep-piece.

Sheep Piece, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Accessed September 2nd, 2022. https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/56317/sheep-piece.

N. Clyde Degginger Memorial: Sheep Piece, Kansas City Parks & Recreation. Accessed September 2nd, 2022. https://kcparks.org/places/clyde-degginger-memorial/.

Collier, Zena. The saga of Sheep Piece. New Letters. November 11th, 1980. Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue. https://catalogue.henry-moore.org/bibliography/15007/the-saga-of-sheep-piece.

Moore, Henry, ‘The Sculptor Speaks’, in Listener, 18 August 1937, pp.338–40, in Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity, Tate Research Publication, 2015. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/henry-moore/henry-moore-the-sculptor-speaks-r1176118, accessed 02 September 2022.