Imagine a flock of sheep grazing in a field of green. The noonday sun is hot, so they seek shelter in Henry Moore's 19-feet wide bronze Sheep Piece designed especially for them. Sheep Piece has stood in the field beyond Moore's studio window since 1977. It was from this studio that Moore drew inspiration for his drawings of sheep in the 1970s, filling a sketchbook and later creating a series of Sheep etchings based on the drawings. The sheep field is rented to a local farmer, thus preserving the appearance of the landscape and the animals that Moore admired. I dedicate this web page to my brother Jimmy, born in the year of sheep and on August 31 when Henry Moore passed on at the age of 88.

Source: Geoffrey Shakerley & Stephen Spender,
Henry Moore: Sculptures in Landscape,
Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., NY, 1978