Upright Internal/External Form: Flower

During the early 1950s, Henry Moore worked on a series of sculptures that explored the theme of internal/external forms. These works reaffirmed the artist’s ability to produce robust, seemingly abstract sculpture that was imbued with great tenderness and humanity. Moore's inspiration came from shapes found in nature; he noted: "the whole of nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form, and it surprises me when artists try to escape from this" (quoted in D. Mitchinson, op. cit., 1891, p. 246). Moore explained that the impetus for the present work was "a sort of embryo being protected by an outer form, a mother and child idea, of the stamen in a flower, that is, something young and growing being protected by an outer shell" (quoted in P. James, ed., Henry Moore on Sculpture, London, 1966, p. 247). The sculptor strove to give the impression that the forms had grown organically or had been created from a pressure within as he said: "For me a work must have a vitality of its own...a pent-up energy, an intense life of its own, independent of the object it may represent" (quoted in M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., ed., Henry Moore, Carvings, Bronzes, New York, 1970, p. 77).
The plaster of the present sculpture, which presents the outer shell only, is housed at the Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green. Other casts are located at the Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki, and the Hakone Open-Air Museum. The present work has been in the same private collection for over 25 years.