Moore is one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century; his works feature in public places around the world. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, the son of a coal miner, Moore studied at Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art where he later taught.

He is best known for monumental sculptures in marble, wood and bronze that explore the human form. Of this sculpture, Moore stated:

"The idea for 'The Warrior' came to me at the end of 1952 or very early in 1953. It was evolved from a pebble I found on the seashore in the summer of 1952, and which reminded me of the stump of a leg, amputated at the hip. Just as Leonardo says somewhere in his notebooks that a painter can find a battle scene in the lichen marks on a wall, so this gave me the start of 'The Warrior' idea".

Whilst Henry Moore is one of the best loved and most respected British artists of the 20th century, the purchase in 1958 of this sculpture by Huddersfield Art Gallery provoked great controversy. There was a great deal of debate in the local press, with one letter to the Huddersfield Examiner stating:

"When this ugly distorted depiction of the human body is installed in the Art Gallery, sited so that the monstrous form may be viewed from all angles may I suggest that the plaque be removed and a new one bearing the words 'Huddersfield Rate-payer' be attached?"

On 5th November 1958, the purchase of the work was discussed and voted on by the Town Council. The debate for and against lasted an hour and a quarter. By a majority of 29 to15, the purchase was finally ratified and the work was acquired at a heavily discounted price. The artwork has gone on to become one of the most loved works in the gallery's collection.

You can view some more of Henry Moores work and his famous Falling Warrior on the Henry Moore website.

Henry Moore (1898-1986)

Falling Warrior, 1956/57

Bronze

Stanley Spencer was one of the most original British painters of his generation. His paintings combined the realism of everyday life with dreamlike visions drawn from his imagination.

Spencer spent most of his life in the sleepy village of Cookham, Hampshire, which he referred to as "a village in Heaven". The area was a major source of inspiration and even provided the setting for his many Biblical paintings such as Christ Carrying the Cross. He was a familiar sight in the village, pushing a battered black pram in which he carried his canvas and easel.

Garden at Cookham Rise, 1946

Stanley Spencer: 1891-1959

Oil on canvas

Born in New York of Russian and Polish parents, Epstein studied in Paris before settling in London in 1907. As a student, through visits to the Louvre, he developed a fascination with ancient and primitive sculpture.

Sir Jacob Epstein wrote a letter to Huddersfield Art Gallery upon the occasion of the acquisition of his sculpture: "I am very pleased you are having my portrait of Prof Einstein which I consider perhaps my finest portrait, and is certainly the portrait of a great man."

Epstein also said of Einstein: "He resembled the ageing Rembrandt". And we can certainly recognise the likeable mixture of humility and deep intelligence, the somewhat dishevelled charisma. "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor", Albert Einstein is reputed to have said referring to his own notorious scruffiness. Epstein has also captured this in a parallel of style: rough and unpolished as it may be, the spectator viewing this powerful bust of Einstein is left in not doubt that the subject has been treated in a truthful way.

Epstein is said to have regretted not being able to work longer on the sculpture before his subject left England; but it is difficult to imagine what more he could have done. Criticised in his lifetime for the unfinished look of his portrait bronzes, what he said in his defence applies very much to his work: "It is the rough surface which gives both character and likeness to the face." Such vigorous handling, reminiscent of Rodin, does indeed give an immediate sense of character and psychological truth.

Einstein was said to be affably informal. Indeed, in 1933 having fled Hitler's Germany, his work condemned as 'Jewish Physics', and in a beach hut containing a piano, near Cromer on the Norfolk coast, Einstein smoked his pipe and chatted as Epstein modelled his head in clay: the result being that genius has here been humanised.

Professor Albert Einstein, 1933

Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)

Bronze

The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists active 1911-1913 painting pictures of modern everyday life. They gathered at the studio of Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London.

Members included Walter Sickert, Harold Gilman, Spencer Gore, Lucien Pissarro, Robert Bevan, Augustus John and Duncan Grant. Paintings by each of these artists are part of the Kirklees collections at Huddersfield Art Gallery. Influences include Van Gogh and Gauguin. The Group's portrayal of much of London before and during World War 1 is historically interesting and artistically important.

Bevan, a founder member of the Camden Town Group, showed a partiality for market scenes and horses - this picture records horse sales at a London market.

Bevan and most of the Group had lived in Paris when the art of Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat was well established. Bevan was influenced by Gauguin, bringing to his very English images Gauguin's feelings for simplicity and density.

Harold Gilman joined the Group in 1911. His concentration on domestic interiors, painted with subtle, quiet realism was a departure from the conventions of English painting, as was his use of bright, pure colour. He was an observer of London eating-houses, furnished rooms, landladies and parlours of the mid Edwardian years: these subjects he made his own. In 1917 he was commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund to paint Halifax Harbour. He died soon after completion, in the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1919.

Tea in the Bedsitter, 1916

Harold Gilman (1876-1919)

Oil on canvas.