Live Auction 1553Prints & Multiples
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Lot 117

Henry Moore (1898-1986)

Sheep

Closed17 September 2014

Price Realised

GBP 18,750

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Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Sheep
the complete portfolio including 12 etchings, 1972-74, on Rives wove paper, with a watermark designed by the artist, with title, text and justification, signed in black ink on the justification, copy number 59, from the total edition of eighty (there was also a deluxe edition of 15), published by Gerald Cramer, Geneva, 1975, each etching signed and inscribed with the plate number in pencil, numbered 59/80, the full sheets, all in excellent condition, loose (as issued), within the original vellum wrappers with the title and etching on the front (portfolio)
445 x 500 mm. (overall)

Specialist note

'Sheep has always had some special meaning for me, more so than cows or horses, whether it is that I saw them as a boy in parts of Yorkshire landscape or whether it's from reading the Bible in early childhood where sheep have a mention, and not horses for instance, I really would not like to say.'

After observing for hours the sheep out of his studio window at Perry Green, Henry Moore made numerous drawings which he assembled in his Sheep Sketchbook as well as printing the present series of 12 etchings, representing a kind of life cycle, from the birth of the lambs to growing up and the sheep being shorn.