‘These plasters have been historically undervalued by both artist and art historian alike, yet they are originals, shaped and textured with assorted chisels, metal files, dental instruments, cheese graters, even humble nutmeg grinders and tooth brushes - each bronze is intrinsically a step removed from the original creation.’ (Anita Felman, ‘Moore: The Plasters,’ Henry Moore Plasters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2011, p.19) In the development of his carvings and bronzes, Moore would often work first on small models, some no bigger than his hand, made from either clay or plaster, in which he would establish the key elements of their forms. These models would then be scaled up, either in the stone itself or in plaster, ready for casting: the present work being the sketch model for Moore's masterpiece of the late 1930s, Recumbent Figure, carved in Green Hornton stone and now in the Tate. Moore, however, also made bronze casts of these original small maquettes, wishing to preserve their spontaneity and Jewel-like quality - and the present work bears the traces of the casting process. Early in Moore’s career he often destroyed his original models to prevent against un-authorized editions being cast, but he reached a turning point in his attitude following an encounter with a curator from the Victoria and Albert Museum. As he recounted: ‘A friend who works at the Victoria and Albert Museum came out one day just as we were breaking up some plasters and said, “But why do that, because sometimes the original plaster is actually nicer to look at than the final bronze.” He was right because an idea you’ve had and that you’ve made in the original material or plaster can suit it better than what the final bronze may do. Especially to begin with it was difficult for me to visualize for sure just what the plaster I was doing would look like in bronze.’ (The Artist, in Henry J Seldis, Henry Moore in America, London and New York, 1973, pp.222-4, cited in Anita Felman, ‘Moore: The Plasters,’ Henry Moore Plasters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2011, p.19) From this point Moore decided to retain his originals, but he ran into the issue of storage. Along with the originals which were used for casting, there were a multitude of plasters which were abandoned in the creative process. Consequently, Moore gifted several models to institutions, such as the original plaster model for Reclining Figure, 1951, created for the Festival of Britain, which he gifted to the Tate, and a large group of monumental plasters which went to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1973, where they are displayed in a dedicated gallery. The present work was given by Henry Moore to the painter and art collector Derek Hill (1916-2000) in 1951-2. Derek Hill left his studio house in Hampstead and its contents to the Derek Hill Foundation, which aims to benefit fellow artists and the arts generally through providing small grants and travel bursaries.