Learn about Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore (1898-1986) was one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century and arguably the most internationally celebrated sculptor of the period. He is renowned for his semi-abstract monumental bronzes, which can be seen all over the world.

Henry Moore at Hoglands, c.1960

Moore was born in Castleford, a small mining town in Yorkshire, in 1898. After training to be a teacher and serving in the British Army he studied at Leeds School of Art and then the Royal College of Art, London. By the 1950s Moore had begun to receive a number of international commissions. He continued working in sculpture, drawing, printmaking and textile design until his death in 1986.

Moore was a pioneer, and the first British artist to become a global star in his own lifetime. His work came to symbolise post-war modernism and can be said to have caused a British sculptural renaissance.

1898 - 1925

Born in 1898, Henry Spencer Moore was the seventh of eight children to mining parents who encouraged their children's education.

1926 - 1939

By the end of the 1920s Moore had assimilated the early teaching and influences of his student years and developed his own unique modernist aesthetic. In the 1930s he began to establish a formidable international reputation.

1940 - 1947

During the 1940s Henry Moore firmly established his reputation on the global stage.

1948 - 1971

In 1948 Henry Moore travelled to Italy for his one-man show in the British Pavillion at the 24th Venice Biennale, the first since the war. Moore's work was felt to reflect the spirit of the event and he was awarded the International Sculpture Prize. His sculpture came to represent the optimistic, humanist values embodied in modernism and opposed to Fascism.

1972 - 1986

Throughout Moore's life his career continued to accelerate and international exhibitions became increasingly ambitious.

1987 - now

A giant of twentieth century art, today Henry Moore is considered as the catalyst of the British sculptural renaissance that followed his rise to fame in his own lifetime.