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© The Henry Moore Foundation

RHINOCEROS 1981

Henry Moore (1898 – 1986)

Details

Dimension
21.3 X 27.7 CM
Media
ETCHING
Accession number
P5279

Summary

It was suggested to Moore after he had made the Elephants in 1979 that a wild animals portfolio would make an excellent companion to the Ship Album of 1972/74 and the Elephant Skull album of 1970. Although he visited London Zoo several times and invited his old friend Solly Zuckerman, the President of the Zoological Society, to write the text, the animals were not drawn from life but copied from photographs taken by his assistant, Michel Muller. Nevertheless the best of them carry the unmistakable Moore treatment. Rhinoceros (P5279) standing in all its solidity like a Moore sculpture and Zebra (P5284), where the camera angle has been exploited and the animal characteristics reduced to bare essentials, show a clear understanding of the form and feeling of the beasts. The Animals in Zoo album consisting of 12 full page etchings was printed in an edition of 65 by J C Editions and published by Raymond Spencer Company Ltd in 1983.

Glossary

  • Edition

    All copies of a book, print, portfolio, sculpture, etc., issued or produced at one time or from a single set of type. Printed works can be made in an edition of between one and many thousands of copies. With most printing techniques the plate or screen will become worn if very many prints are made, so to maintain quality (and exclusivity) editions of original prints are usually kept below one hundred copies and normally average between thirty and fifty copies. Prints made up of several different plates can be extremely complicated and time-consuming to edition, so in these cases editions are kept low for practical reasons. Sculptural editions are a set of cast sculptures taken from the same mould or master. These editions are usually much lower, consisting of no more than six casts. Though each cast in an edition might have a lower value than a unique piece, it may be a more effective way of offsetting costs of an expensive process such as bronze casting.

  • Portfolio

    A set of pictures (as drawings, photographs or prints) either bound in book form or loose in a folder. These can be by the same artist or individual works by a selection of artists. The term also refers to the folder which holds the set.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.

Portfolio