Moore’s biographer, Roger Berthoud, described ‘the union of hole and human figure’ as ‘Moore’s first major stylistic contribution to sculpture’. [1] Moore first pierced his sculpture in Woman with Upraised Arms (1924–5). This hole, and those in the works that closely followed, was a literal description of the space between limbs. However, in the early 1930s the negative space became completely abstract for Moore. The hole thus became formally integrated into the sculpture, which, as Berthoud asserts, is widely considered a crucial breakthrough for Moore.

Reclining Figure demonstrates Moore’s transition between these two stages. Although the void is the result of a raised arm, it is often cited as the first example of Moore using this aspect for its compositional properties. Graham Beal thought it ‘appears to be the first work in which Moore experimented with the “hole” as a sculptural device’. [2] Moreover, John Russell writes that it is ‘the first of the eloquent holes in his Reclining Figure series’, as it ‘rhymes with the other ovals in the composition’. [3] Although Moore had already introduced holes in his work in a figurative sense, Barbara Hepworth believed it was seeing her Pierced Form (1931) in her studio that caused him to experiment with the void as abstraction. [4]

Moore believed that by carving entirely through the stone, he introduced space and three-dimensionality. [5] As he explained, ‘To understand space I have to begin to think about actual penetrations into the stone.’ [6] The nature of the ironstone from which Reclining Figure is carved means that it is much flatter than many of Moore’s other sculptures. It is almost two-dimensional, like a drawing, with incised lines marking the details of the face, nipples and hands on the smooth stone. The nature of the stone, which began as a flat, oval pebble, as opposed to the blocks of many of Moore’s larger carvings, gives it a lightness, as it barely touches its base.

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