Moore, a draftsman and printmaker, is generally acknowledged as the most important British sculptor of the 20th century. The seventh child of a miner, he was brought up in the small industrial town of Castleford. Moore joined the army in 1917 and was sent to France. He was gassed in the Battle of Cambrai and returned to England to convalesce. In 1919 he began the two-year course at Leeds School of Art. Like Constantin Brancusi, Amedeo Modigliani, Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Moore believed passionately in direct carving and in “truth to materials,” respecting the inherent character of stone or wood. Almost all of his works from the 1920s and 1930s were carved sculptures, initially inspired by Pre-Columbian stone carving. The Henry Moore Sculpture Centre in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, opened in 1974. It comprises the world’s largest public collection of Moore’s work, most of it donated by him between 1971 and 1974. In 1977 the Henry Moore Foundation was established at Much Hadham, and Moore presented 36 sculptures to the Tate Gallery in 1978. Moore died in 1986.
