In September, farmers are checking the condition of their ewe, ready for them to join the rams and begin the mating game in October. Everyone at Goldmark is very friendly, knowledgeable and will give you as much or as little time as you wish. He captures the sheep’s energy and sudden vigorous movement as well as their repose and calm thoughtfulness. Although he produced around 30 photography manuals, these were Hedgecoe’s only books on a single subject. In February 1972 Henry Moore's sculpture studios in the English countryside at Much Hadham were filled with the preparations for his retrospective exhibition at Florence.

Moore wrote: “Then I began to realize that underneath all that wool was a body, which moved in its own way, and that each sheep had its individual character. This permeable position between the maker and the made is perhaps what attracted the sculptor to the animal, leading him to produce a range of sketches in pen and ink that would eventually make up his 1980 publication Henry Moore’s Sheep Sketchbook. The time Moore spent watching sheep from his window gave him an insight into the nature and temperament of the sheep. He is renowned for his semi-abstract, figurative works which can be seen as monumental public sculptures around the world. In 1972 Moore presented a large number of these sketches to his daughter Mary in a Sheep Sketchbook.Moore started printmaking in 1931, and in 1958 met the master lithographer Stanley Jones at the Curwen Press with whom he continued to make prints until the end of his life in 1986. They may have moved out of the position that provided Moore with this initial inspiration but the artist essentially links their textures to the landscape that they inhabit; the woolly cacophony of the animals being part of the momentary process of place. They also developed strong human and biblical associations, and the sight of a ewe with her lamb evoked the mother-and-child theme - a large form sheltering a small one - which was important to Henry Moore in all his work. Initially he saw them as four-legged balls of wool, but his vision changed as he explored what they were really like - the way they moved, the shape of their bodies under the fleece.

In his book Photographing People, Hedgecoe described two images of Moore, which played with the scale between sculptor and sculpture: ‘When considering a long-term project involving a pictorial record of a person’s life, it is important to include shots such as these above, that show the viewer important aspects of the subject’s work. These two are of particular interest because they show the varying scale of the sculptures created by Henry Moore – in the picture above he appears completely dominated by the reclining figure, while in the other at the top he is the most prominent element. Other leading British artists represented in the collection include Eileen Agar, David Bomberg, Roger Fry, Harold Gilman, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, Lucie Rie and William Scott. After observing for hours the sheep out of his studio window at Perry Green, Henry Moore made numerous drawings which he assembled in his Sheep Sketchbook as well as printing the present series of 12 etchings, representing a kind of life cycle, from the birth of the lambs to growing up and the sheep being shorn. Speed becomes a new tool in Moore’s repertoire when drawing sheep, forcing him to innovate and tap into the fluid motions constantly associated with him but in a more instantaneous way.A cast was loaned for the public exhibition in Battersea Park for Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and a cast was included in an exhibition organised by the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, and displayed in the Tuileries the same year. Since the time of the Moore exhibition in Zurich in 1976 this abstract bronze sculpture "Sheep Piece" has been admired as a public work of art. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Accurately reproducing the pages of Moore's 1972 sketchbook, this gem of a book gives a glimpse into the private inspirations of one of the giants of 20th-century British art. With their oversized bodies, Moore was seeking to attract our attention to these rather mundane animals which we scarcely notice any more. On paper, the attempt to recreate that same relationship provides a surprising element of transience to the sheep as they go about their everyday business of milling about. The sculpture includes two forms, representing two animals – possibly two adult sheep, or a ewe with a lamb.A great resource for artists and art students and a thoroughly charming addition to your art library. It feels really personal and you can clearly see his use of mark making and where he has put a ‘wash’ on etc. We first visited Goldmark approximately 6 years ago and immediately liked the informality compared to previous gallery experiences. In this facsimile edition, created under Moore's personal supervision, Mary's little lambs will charm anyone who sees these tender, vigorous drawings.