Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore was one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century and arguably the most internationally celebrated sculptor of the period. Born in 1898 in the small mining town of Castleford, Yorkshire, the son of a coal miner, he knew he wanted to be a sculptor from an early age, but reluctantly trained as a teacher before serving in the army during the First World War. In 1919, thanks to an ex-serviceman's grant, he enrolled at Leeds School of Art and then the Royal College of Art in London. 

Reacting against the European sculptural tradition, Moore moved away from the human figure to experiment with abstract shapes that drew on organic and natural forms, studying bones, pebbles and shells to understand what he called "nature's principles of form and rhythm." By the 1930s he was among the leading avant-garde sculptors of Europe.

By the 1950s he had begun to receive international commissions, and continued working in sculpture, drawing, printmaking and textile design until his death in 1986. His work is held in almost every major public and private collection globally, with more sculptures in the public realm worldwide than any other sculptor in history.

Photograph by Allan warren via Wikimedia Commons