HENRY MOORE, O.M., C.H. (1898-1986)

Moon Head is a larger version of Moore’s Maquette for Head and Hand, 1962. It is comprised of a head with an open mouth on one disc and a thumb and forefinger on the other. Moore created several versions of this work which appear in a variety of materials. There is a bronze example in the Tate, London, a plaster sculpture in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and the Henry Moore Foundation retain a porcelain version in their own collection.

The artist commented on this piece: 'The white [porcelain] two-form sculpture I call ‘Moon Head’ is one of several recent Knife-Edge sculptures I’ve made which have all come about through my interest in bone forms – for example the breast bones of birds – so light, so delicate and yet so strong – But I can also think that my Knife-Edge sculptures may be unconsciously influenced by my liking for the sharp-edged Cycladic idols' (Henry Moore, letter to Lord Eccles, June 1969, reprinted in Henry Moore at the British Museum, London, 1981, p. 13).