Henry Moore 1980 Sketchbook Facsimile

The original of this remarkable facsimile sketchbook was drawn by Henry Moore during 1980, when the artist was in his mid 80s. It was almost certainly begun during a July holiday on the Italian coast at Forte dei Marmi, since the first sketch is of bathers in the sea, and it contains a fascinating anthology of Moore’s main themes: the reclining figure, the seated figure, mother and child, the stringed form, internal and external forms. There are Old Master drawings recalled, drawings close to nature, even a landscape.

Moore’s technique varies from strokes of black lines to elaborate colored compositions in mixtures of watercolor, gouache, and chinagraph. A number of the drawings are as finished as the presentation drawings of Renaissance artists. On every page of this sketchbook the artist shows his freshness of vision, his keen response to Nature’s infinite variety, and his delight in drawing.

The superbly reproduced facsimile edition, signed by the artist in a limited edition of 350, was made by the well-known firm Kunstanstalt Max Jaffé, Vienna, using the collotype process. Covered with maroon cloth, the sketchbook measures 9 7/16” H x 7 3/8” W and contains 86 pages. It comes with a catalog introduced and compiled by Ann Garrould, Henry Moore’s niece and an authority on his work. Sketchbook and catalog are in a Solander box made by Dermont-Duval, Paris, covered in a Richard de Bas handmade paper.