Henry Moore

The first book to explore the sculptor Henry Moore’s fascination with the medieval helmets in the armouries at the Wallace Collection, an interest which fundamentally influenced his work over many years

The Wallace Collection hosts a major exhibition in collaboration with The Henry Moore Foundation for spring 2019 exploring the sculptor Henry Moore’s fascination with armour at the Wallace Collection, an interest which fundamentally influenced his work over many years.

Coinciding with the major exhibition of the same name, Henry Moore: The Helmet Heads traces the footsteps of the artist through the armouries of the Wallace Collection, where he encountered ‘objects of power’ that profoundly influenced his work for the rest of his career.

‘The idea of one form inside another form may owe some of its incipient beginnings to my interest at one stage when I discovered armour. I spent many hours in the Wallace Collection, in London, looking at armour.’ - Henry Moore, 1980.

Captivated by helmets in particular, Moore saw in them a fundamental form idea – an outer shell which could protect something vulnerable inside. Tobias Capwell identifies the specific helmets which inspired the artist and examines these alongside Moore’s sculptures for the very first time. The reasons for his fascination with armour and the implications it had on his art are explored by Hannah Higham and set in the context of Moore’s life and work – one punctuated by global conflicts and artistic experiment.

Richly illustrated, this catalogue reveals the origins of some of Henry Moore’s most innovative works and examines in depth for the first time this largely unknown aspect of his career.