A Monumental Vision: The Sculpture of Henry Moore

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

Large, heavy, black and white, A Monumental Vision is nearly as
monumental as its subject. Master photographer John Hedgecoe was a
personal friend of Henry Moore for more than 35 years, and his
understanding of the sculptor’s habits and preferences have been put
to good use. In 1968, Moore acknowledged Hedgecoe’s expertise in a
warm tribute: “John Hedgecoe, through taking these photographs, as
well as through all the communication we have had together, has learnt
what I’m aiming at in sculpture, and has been able to reveal and give
added meaning and interest to it.” Hedgecoe, in turn, characterizes
Moore as a genuinely down-to-earth person. He writes that the sculptor
“would offer ‘some theories and thoughts’ on his work if asked,
but the intellectual element was always secondary to the sensual, to a
deep love of form as he would find it in nature, in the human body
(especially the female form) the land and the rocks.”

This is primarily a book of photographs. The relatively brief text
(with related photos) is in three parts. Part 1, “The Vision,” is a
photo-essay of the forms Moore would have encountered in the landscape:
the twisted roots of great oak trees, the massive rocks of Stonehenge,
the ruins of an old castle by the sea. As Hedgecoe writes, Moore was
always attracted to the monumental. In Part 2, “The Sculptor,”
Hedgecoe places sculptures and the initial sketches for them face to
face, an interesting juxtaposition. Part 3, “The Works,” consists of
780 small color photos of Moore’s sculptures, complete with titles,
dates of casting, and size.

A Monumental Vision is a worthy tribute to an extraordinary
achievement. Hedgecoe’s photographs of Moore’s work reflect patient
and sensitive attention to detail, a masterly eye for light, and a sure
knowledge of which angle will best reveal a sculptor’s essential form.