Gouache, ink, watercolour and crayon on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henry-moore-om-ch-1659" aria-label="More by Henry Moore OM, CH" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henry Moore OM, CH</a>
Woman Seated in Underground
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
actions: postures and motions
adults
air raid
anxiety
Blitz
Blitz, London, 1940-42
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
history
interiors
military: World War II
people
public and municipal
sitting
underground station
woman
<p>Although many of the Shelter Drawings showed groups of people, some concentrated on individuals. In this  picture a lone woman sits apart from  the other shelterers. Swathed in layers  of clothing, she stares out of the picture, anxiously clasping her hands. This sense  of tension is heightened by the abrupt jump from foreground to background  and the network of nervous, scratchy  lines that describe the figure.</p><p>The apparent absence of period detail  led some commentators to interpret  such figures as timeless symbols of fear, vulnerability and endurance.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique gouache ink watercolour crayon
5 August 2002 – 13 April 2003
2003-04-13
5 August 2002 – 13 April 2003
2003-04-13
2002-08-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-05
Henry Moore in the 1940s
Collection based display
1 June 2005 – 31 August 2005
2005-08-31
1 June 2005 – 31 August 2005
2005-08-31
2005-06-01
Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
1 October 2005 – 1 March 2006
2006-03-01
2005-10-01
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey  (Monterrey, Mexico)
http://www.marco.org.mx
2005-06-01
Henry Moore and Mexico
Loan-out
4 June 2005 – 9 October 2005
2005-10-09
28 May 2005 – 9 October 2005
2005-10-09
2005-05-28
Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
4 November 2005 – 19 February 2006
2006-02-19
2005-11-04
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey  (Monterrey, Mexico)
http://www.marco.org.mx
2005-06-04
Moore and Mexico
Loan-out
18 July 2006 – 15 October 2006
2006-10-15
18 July 2006 – 15 October 2006
2006-10-15
2006-07-18
Fundació la Caixa (Barcelona, Spain)
2006-07-18
Henry Moore
Loan-out
24 February 2010 – 12 June 2011
2011-06-12
24 February 2010 – 8 August 2010
2010-08-08
2010-02-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
11 March 2011 – 12 June 2011
2011-06-12
2011-03-11
Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds, UK)
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery/
2010-02-24
Henry Moore
Exhibition
1 September 2010 – 15 April 2011
2011-04-15
11 March 2011 – 12 June 2011
2011-06-12
2011-03-11
Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds, UK)
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery/
2010-09-01
Henry Moore
Loan-out
22 March 2013 – 23 June 2013
2013-06-23
22 March 2013 – 7 July 2013
2013-07-07
2013-03-22
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2013-03-22
Tracing the Century
Loan-out
28 May 2014 – 6 October 2014
2014-10-06
28 May 2014 – 6 October 2014
2014-10-06
2014-05-28
Musée du Louvre-Lens (Lens, France)
2014-05-28
Les désastres de la guerre 1800-2014
Loan-out
29 January 2015 – 25 May 2015
2015-05-25
29 January 2015 – 25 May 2015
2015-05-25
2015-01-29
Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern, Switzerland)
http://www.zpk.org
2015-01-29
Henry Moore from the Tate
Loan-out
24 September 2015 – 30 November 2017
2017-11-30
24 September 2015 – 10 January 2016
2016-01-10
2015-09-24
Museo Nazionale Romano - Baths of Diocletian (Rome, Italy)
11 November 2016 – 19 March 2017
2017-03-19
2016-11-11
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
2015-09-24
Henry Moore
Tate partnerships & programmes
5 April 2019 – 27 October 2019
2019-10-27
5 April 2019 – 27 October 2019
2019-10-27
2019-04-05
Henry Moore Foundation (Perry Green, UK)
2019-04-05
Henry Moore Drawings
Loan-out
Woman Seated in the Underground
support: 483 × 381 mm
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
<p>
Although many of the Shelter <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>Drawings</span></a> showed groups of people, some concentrated on individuals. In this <br/>
picture a lone woman sits apart from <br/>
the other shelterers. Swathed in layers <br/>
of clothing, she stares out of the picture, anxiously clasping her hands. This sense <br/>
of tension is heightened by the abrupt jump from foreground to background <br/>
and the network of nervous, scratchy <br/>
lines that describe the figure.</p>
<p>
 </p>
<p>
The apparent absence of period detail <br/>
led some commentators to interpret <br/>
such figures as timeless symbols of fear, vulnerability and endurance.</p>
<p>
 </p>
Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05707</b> WOMAN SEATED IN THE UNDERGROUND 1941</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘Moore 41’ b.r.
<br/>Pen, chalk and gouache, 19×15 (48×38).
<br/>Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Britain at War</i>, New York, and Canadian and U.S. tour, 1941–4; New York, Chicago and San Francisco, 1946–7 (86, repr. p.70); British Council tour, Australia, 1947–8 (33, repr.); Berlin (repr.) and Vienna, 1951 (67).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Neumann, 1959, pp.80–3, repr. pl.49.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Read, 1944, pl.187; Sweeney, 1946, p.70; Argan, 1948, pl.27.</p>
<p>See <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/moore-grey-tube-shelter-n05706" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05706</span></a>. The Shelter Sketch-Books include a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> for this figure, omitting the receding tunnel on the right (repr. Editions Poetry, 1944).</p>
<p>Neumann sees the seated figure as the female archetype, which is always predominant in Moore's work, in a new spectral aspect inspired by the war, ‘The Great Goddess manifesting herself as mistress of death’; the idea is paralleled in another shelter drawing entitled ‘Three Fates’ (private collection; see Neumann, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp.84–5, repr. pl.51; also repr. Read, <i>op. cit.</i>, pl.184<i>a</i>, and Read and Sylvester, I, 1957, p.231).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults air raid anxiety Blitz Blitz, London, 1940-42 emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas history interiors military: World War II people public and municipal sitting underground station woman