Figures Allongées

Figures allongées is an print by the British artist  Henry Moore  (Castleford, 1898 - Much Hadham, 1986).

This color lithograph on paper was edited by the French magazine XXe Siécle , and published on the Panorama 71 , number issue  XXXIV , Paris, in 1971.

This lithograph presents one of the artist’s most iconic and recurring themes: the reclining human figure.

The composition is structured in three horizontal bands, each showing a stylised reclining body in a different position, like variations of the same idea. Moore reduces the figures to simplified, monumental forms, with rounded torsos, hollowed contours, and sculptural volumes that recall his celebrated stone and bronze sculptures.

The print is executed in a refined palette of soft grey-violet and warm ochre-yellow, with dark linear accents that define the anatomy. The yellow areas act like shadows or halos, giving depth and rhythm to the bodies while emphasizing their connection to the ground, as if they are resting within an abstract landscape.

Balancing drawing and sculpture, this work demonstrates Moore’s ability to transform the human body into a timeless architectural form, poised between sensuality and abstraction.

XXe Siécle:

An important French Art Magazine, the  XXe siècle  was founded by  Gualtieri di San Lazzaro , pseudonym of Giuseppe Antonio Leandro Papa (1904-1974), writer and Italian art editor.