Collection: Stonehenge by Henry Moore

Henry Moore first visited Stonehenge in 1921, during the period he was studying in London at the Royal College of Art. In the autumn, he arrived in Salisbury in the early evening and was so excited to see the prehistoric site, he ventured out in the dark.

It was a clear evening I got to Stonehenge and saw it by Moonlight. I was alone and tremendously impressed. (Moonlight, as you know enlarges everything, and the mysterious depths and distances made it seem enormous).

I went again the next morning, it was still very impressive, but that first moonlight visit remained for years my idea of Stonehenge.

For Moore, lithography was the perfect medium to depict the texture of the rough hewn stones. Chalky blackness captures the essence of the moody and spiritual darkness surrounding and moving between the interior and exterior of the monolithic sarsens. The series progresses from day to night, light to dark, physical power to spiritual strength, objectivity to subjectivity. These fifteen lithographs express Moore's lifelong enchantment with this mystical, bewildering ancient monument.