Henry Moore

(British, 1898-1986)

Study for the Death of Mira (Prométhée), 1950

watercolor and gouache, pen and ink with colored chalks on paper

signed and dated Moore/50 (lower right); also inscribed with medium, title and artist (verso)

Unframed.

14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9cm)

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

We are grateful to Anita Feldman Bennet, curator at the Henry Moore Foundation, for her kind assistance in the preparation of this note.

Provenance:

Fondation Martin Bodmer, Bibliotecha Bodmeriana, Cologny, Geneva.

Christie's, New York, sale of January 23, 2002, lot 184.

Acquired directly from the above sale by the present owner.

Literature:

Ann Garrould, Henry Moore. Complete Drawings, 3, 1940-49, London and Much Hadham, London, 2001, no. AG50.20/HMF2591, p. 308 (illustrated p. 309 with incorrect number AG50.19).

Lot Essay:

This dynamic composition is a preparatory study for one of the eight full-page lithographs Henry Moore created to illustrate André Gide’s French translation of Goethe’s Prometheus, published by Henri Jonquières in Paris in 1951. Goethe’s Prometheus reimagines the ancient Titan who defied Zeus by bringing fire and knowledge to humankind, as a symbol of creative independence and human resilience. For Goethe, as for later Romantic artists, Prometheus embodied the self-reliant creator who draws power from his own imagination rather than divine authority.

The image derives from a page of studies once belonging to Moore’s Promethée sketchbook (Notebook 7, HMF 2564), which the artist later disassembled and sold in 1984. While the sketchbook is generally dated 1949–50, Moore did not receive the commission until December 1949, suggesting that most related drawings were executed in 1950. A related version, in darker tones, is held in a private American collection (HMF 2592).

The present composition illustrates the Death of Mira, a dramatic episode unique to Goethe’s version. In this scene, Prometheus’s daughter Pandora recounts her friend Mira’s descent into death, prompting her father’s lyrical reflection on mortality. Goethe’s verses describe death not as destruction but as transformation; an inward journey in which the self encompasses an entire world.

Study for the Death of Mira (Prométhée), 1950

Study for the Death of Mira (Prométhée), 1950