Ideas for Two-Figure Sculpture

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”.

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.

August 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.

1944

The death of Moore’s mother

Moore’s mother, Mary (née Baker), died in 1944; two years later his daughter was named after her.

March 1946

The birth of his daughter Mary

After several earlier miscarriages Irina gave birth to their only child, Mary, in March 1946, named after Moore’s mother. The loss of his mother and the arrival of the baby focused his mind on the family, which he expressed in many mother-and-child compositions.

1946–1947

A retrospective at MoMA and his first trip to America

In 1946 a retrospective of Moore’s work opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he made his first visit to America. The exhibition brought him fame as one of the finest masters of the twentieth century.