Henry Moore - prints

Henry Moore at the Discovery Centre, Winchester

Moore's interest in printmaking began after the First World War and continued until the end of his life. Printmaking formed an increasingly important part of his work from the 1970s when he worked with specialist printers and publishers internationally to meet a growing demand for his work.

Many of the etchings and lithographs were conceived to accompany the work of selected poets - W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Charles Baudelaire and Lawrence Durrell - or to illustrate the work of writers such as Shakespeare, Dante, Andre Gide. Others were assembled as part of group tributes to artists including Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Mark Rothko. Moore published over 700 prints in his lifetime.

Trees: Spreading Branches, 1979 (etching and aquatint)

 

Windswept Landscape, 1973 (lithograph)  (Auden poems)

 

Seated Figure II: Pink Background, 1974 (lithograph)

 

Lullaby, 1973, (lithograph) (Auden Poems)

'When Vera Lindsay suggested that I should illustrate a selection of Auden poems I was at once interested in the idea, because I had known him since the 1930s and had always greatly admired him and his poetry; but it was some months before I felt I could really get going. I began with the most obvious poem - Lullaby, to me a very touching and beautiful one - in a straightforward way as if I were illustrating Alice in Wonderland or any other story. But after reading some of the other poems I realised that it would be impossible to treat them in the same way and I began to wonder what other ways there were of approaching the problem'.

Woman with Book, 1976 (lithograph).