Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth sculptures net more than £5m at auction

THEY remain among the world’s best-loved sculptors, who continue to capture the imaginations of art critics and the public alike.
Henry Moore's work Reclining Figure: UmbilicusHenry Moore's work Reclining Figure: Umbilicus
Henry Moore's work Reclining Figure: Umbilicus

And the enduring appeal of West Yorkshire-born friends Henry Moore and Dame Barbara Hepworth has been shown once again after examples of their work fetched more than £5.9m at auction in London, attracting bids from across the globe.

Moore’s 1984 sculpture Reclining Figure: Umbilicus was sold for £1,762,500 to an anonymous buyer at a Christie’s auction of Modern British and Irish Art on Wednesday night.

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Four more works by Moore, who was born and raised in Castleford, sold for a total of £1,360,000 at the sale.

The moment a Henry Moore sculpture is sold for £1,500.000The moment a Henry Moore sculpture is sold for £1,500.000
The moment a Henry Moore sculpture is sold for £1,500.000

Christie’s said “fiercely competitive bidding” led to Wakefield-born Barbara Hepworth’s 1953 hand sculpture selling for £1,426,500.

The hand sculpture attracted the highest bids for Hepworth pieces, while four more of her works sold for a total of £1,402,000.

The second highest price paid for a Hepworth at the auction was £602,500 for her 1969 Single Form (Antiphon) work, while Forms in Movement (Pavan) went for £338,500.

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LS Lowry’s painting The Railway Platform fetched the second highest sum at £1,650,500 in a Christie’s sale of modern British and Irish art. André Zlattinger, head of modern British art at Christie’s London, said prices continue to climb for both Moore and Hepworth’s work.

He said: “Moore and Hepworth are probably two of the key figures of sculpture in the 20th century, not just in Britain but internationally.

“In the early part of the 20th century, particularly in the 1930s, they were at the forefront of European modernism alongside such great artists as Brancusi and Mondrian. Also, over recent years, you have got international collectors who have really recognised the importance of these artists. We had buyers on Wednesday night from China, across Asia, Europe and the UK.

“They (Moore and Hepworth) were very much at the forefront of modern art. They lived close to each other in Hampstead, London, in the 1930s.

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“They were very much in the circle of artists and intellectuals at that time.”

Mr Zlattinger said the record sale for a Hepworth at Christie’s in London was set last year when her 1960 bronze Figure for Landscape sculpture was sold for more than £4m. He added: “The strong sell-through rates of this sale highlight the continuing appreciation and demand for this dynamic category, with five works selling for over £1 million.

The sale was led by Moore’s Reclining Figure: Umbilicus, with other notable results for sculpture exemplified by Hepworth’s carved Hand Sculpture (Turning Form), which sparked fiercely competitive bidding, resulting in an auction record for a unique carving in the medium.

Other significant results for paintings included David Bomberg’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which set a world record price for the artist at auction. Irish art was 100 per cent sold, with works by Lavery, Yeats, Henry and O’Conor continuing to be well received.

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The Christie’s brochure ahead of the sale in the capital earlier this week stated: “Moore’s prolific career saw the theme of the reclining figure develop into, what he noted to be, ‘an absolute obsession’ and served as the site of some of his greatest innovations. In the present work, Moore has transformed the human body into an arrangement of abstraction and figuration.

“Conceived in 1984, Reclining Figure: Umbilicus encapsulates Moore’s vision of sculpture: at once figurative and abstract, with its flowing lines, rolling curves and polished surface.”

– Henry Moore was born in Castleford in 1898 and died in 1986. Moore went to infant and elementary schools in Castleford, where he began modelling in clay and carving in wood.

He was a wealthy man but lived frugally and most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation.

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Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield in 1903 and died in 1975. She went to Wakefield Girls’ High School before winning a scholarship to study at Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow student, Henry Moore. They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years.