Four-Piece Composition: Reclining Figure

Four-Piece Composition: Reclining Figure (LH154) is an important early stone sculpture by the English sculptor Henry Moore. He had been working on depictions of the reclining human figure since at least 1924, but this small piece, made in the latter half of 1934, is the first work in which Moore breaks a human figure down in to several separate pieces. It was acquired by the Tate Gallery in 1976.

Moore worked on the sculpture at his studio on Parkhill Road, in Hampstead, by directly carving the stone without making prior models, but rather simply responding to the material. Some of More's contemporaneous drawings display related themes, with several sheets of shapes evolved from separate body parts. Moore later explained that he "began separating forms from each other in order to be able to relate space and form together". The sculpture was not just the parts, but also how they were arranged, their relationships and the spaces between and around them.

The completed work measures 175 by 457 by 203 millimetres (6.9 in × 18.0 in × 8.0 in). It comprises four elements of polished Cumberland alabaster, a fine grained and soft form of opaque greyish gypsum with darker brownish mottling and veins. These four elements are arranged on a small block of Purbeck Marble, like a picture frame, but they do not touch each other. The individual elements are abstracted, but arranged together they become parts of a human figure; they were later described by Moore as a head, body, and leg, and a small piece that Moore called the umbilicus connecting the others together.

Three elements are arranged in alignment: the head like a disc, with a large U-shaped notch to create a nose and mouth, or possibly arms and shoulders; the small rounded umbilicus like a pebble; and the leg, starting with a wider thigh or buttock and then narrowing through a knee bend. Then head has incised decoration of two differently sized circles, one perhaps an eye above the mouth-like notch, connected by a curved line. Behind these three pieces is the body, which curves underneath the leg; this piece can also be interpreted as a second leg. This element also has an incised circle linked to an incised straight line; the circle can been interpreted as a nipple or a second umbilicus. Moore later said the incised elements were inspired by Palaeolithic bone engravings, but some art critics have drawn links with the contemporaneous works of Ben Nicholson.

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