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Three Standing Figures 1947 is a
large stone sculpture by Henry Moore. It was made in 1947–48,
and exhibited at London County Council's first Open-Air
Sculpture Exhibition at Battersea Park in 1948. Donated to the
council, it has been exhibited at the park since 1950. It became
a Grade II listed building in 1988.
The 7 feet (2.1 m) high stone statue comprises three standing
women, draped in flowing garments: two standing closer together,
observed by the third. Each has rudimentary facial features,
such as eye holes.
Moore's draped figures developed from a series of drawings
inspired by his observations of people in underground bomb
shelters during the Second World War. Somewhat reminiscent of
the Three Graces, it may also draw from a drawing of the Three
Fates made by Moore in 1948. In 1968, Moore commented that "it
is as though the three women are standing there, expecting
something to happen from the sky" Sylvester published an essay
in The Burlington Magazine in 1948 with an unusual
interpretation, as a family group: the protective mother, the
stern father, and the child on the far right
Moore began with a terracotta model made c.1945; its present
location is unknown, but there are two known plaster copies, one
at the Henry Moore Foundation and one on long-term loan to the
Tate Gallery. Moore also cast a bronze edition of four (plus one
artist's copy) between 1948 and 1949; an additional artist's
cast was made in 1985. Examples of these sculptures are held in
the Smith College Museum of Art in Massachusetts and the Peggy
Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
The work in Battersea Park was carved between August 1947 and
May 1948 from Darley Dale sandstone, one of the last statues
that Moore made from English stone. It was originally conceived
to fulfil a commission from the Museum of Modern Art in New
York, but it was instead exhibited at London County Council's
first Open-Air Sculpture Exhibition at Battersea Park in 1948. (MOMA
took instead a cast of Moore's first large bronze, Family Group
from The Barclay School in Stevenage, itself originally intended
for Walter Gropius's Impington Village College.)
Moore was a member of the selection committee for the Open-Air
Exhibition, and his sculpture was used on the publicity poster.
It was sited in a prominent position, at the top of a slight
rise in ground, with trees behind.
Moore's reputation grew dramatically from 1948, when he was a
selected as Britain's greatest living artist for the 24th Venice
Biennale and won the sculpture prize.
The stone sculpture was lent for the Open-Air Exhibition in
1948, and then bought by the Contemporary Art Society and
donated to London County Council. It has been permanently sited
in Battersea Park in Battersea, London, in 1950, but has been
moved from its original site.
The sculpture featured in the 1991 Mr. Bean episode Mr. Bean
Goes to Town; Bean tries to take a selfie with a polaroid
camera, with the sculpture in the background. Being
unsuccessful, he asks a passerby to take his photo, but the man
runs off with Bean’s camera..
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