Henry Spencer Moore was born in 1898, in Castleford, Yorkshire. After initially working as a teacher and completing his military service in World War I he attended Leeds School of Art. In 1921 he won a Royal Exhibition Scholarship to study sculpture at the Royal Academy of Art in London. He was appointed Instructor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy in 1924.

Moore's first solo show of sculpture was held at the Warren Gallery, London, in 1928. From 1932 to 1939 he taught at the Chelsea School of Art. Moore participated in the International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London (1936). His first retrospective took place at Temple Newsam, Leeds (1941). Moore was given his first major retrospective abroad by the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1946). He won the International Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale of 1948. In 1963 the artist was awarded the British Order of Merit.

Moore died in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, on August 31, 1986. Major retrospectives have included: the Benois Museum, Petrodvorets, Leningrad travelling to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art Moscow (1991) and at the Galeria BWA, Krakow travelling to the Cini Foundation, Venice (1995).