Figures in an Underground Shelter

1929–1940

A studio in Hampstead, “a nest of gentle artists”

Soon after the wedding the couple moved to a studio at 11a Parkhill Road in Hampstead, joining a colony of avant-garde artists: Hepworth and her husband Ben Nicholson lived around the corner, along with Naum Gabo, Roland Penrose, Cecil Stephenson and the critic Herbert Read, who called the area “a nest of gentle artists”.

1930s

Paris: Picasso, Braque, Arp, Giacometti

Moore, Hepworth and other members of the Seven and Five Society moved steadily towards abstraction, partly through frequent trips to Paris and contact with Picasso, Braque, Jean Arp and Alberto Giacometti.

1937–1939

The row over “Mother and Child” in Penrose’s garden

In 1937 Roland Penrose bought an abstract stone Mother and Child from Moore and put it in the front garden of his Hampstead house. Neighbours objected and the local press campaigned against it for two years; at this time Moore was gradually moving from direct carving to bronze casting.

1939

Gives up teaching

When the Second World War broke out Chelsea School of Art was evacuated to Northampton and Moore resigned his teaching post.

1940–1986

A bomb in Hampstead: the move to Hoglands

In September 1940 bomb shrapnel hit the Moores’ Hampstead home and they left London for Hoglands, a farmhouse in the hamlet of Perry Green near Much Hadham in Hertfordshire. It remained Moore’s home and workshop for the rest of his life; though he grew wealthy he never felt the need to move to larger premises.

1941

The miners of Wheldale

In August 1941 the War Artists’ Advisory Committee commissioned Moore to draw miners working underground at the Wheldale Colliery in Yorkshire, where his father had worked. He drew the shelterers passively awaiting the all-clear, while the miners aggressively worked the coal-faces.