Christopher Martin Memorial

SX7862-7962 DARTINGTON DARTINGTON HALL

12/145 Christopher Martin Memorial 26.4.93

II*

Reclining figure. 1945-6 by Henry Moore for Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst as a memorial to Christopher Martin, first administrator of the arts at Dartington Hall. Horton stone. Reclining figure carved from four large blocks of stone, on a large ashlar pedestal which is rectangular on plan with a chamfered plinth and an umnoulded cornice. The sculpture is an exceptionally fine work by Moore. The figure is clothed and the stylised drapery clings to the massive limbs. The face of the small head is carved in low relief, the eyes simply incised and the hair depicted by tooling on the stone's surface. Stylistically the figure relates to Moore's 'Madonna and Child' of 1943-4 at St Matthews Church, Northampton, but it also echoes the primitive compactness and simplicity of his earliest work, such as the 1929 'Reclining Figure'. This is one of Moore's first commissions, and it is beautifully sited: it is in the gardens at Dartington Hall and faces the line of Spanish chestnuts having her back to Dartington Hall below and the landscape beyond. Martin was also a personal friend of Moore's. Under the patronage of Dorothy and Lconard Elmhurst and the administration of Christopher Martin, Dartington Hall was an important learning ground for young artists in the 1930's.

Listing NGR: SX7972062536