Henry Moore began his career carving smaller-scale pieces in wood and stone. After World War II, he largely abandoned this technique to create large-scale outdoor pieces. He began making plaster and clay models that were better suited than his earlier works for enlargement and reproduction in bronze.

Moore merged the traditional subject matter of the human figure with a Surrealist emphasis on curving forms inspired by the shapes of living organisms. He envisioned Draped Reclining Figure in 1951, when he traveled to Greece and studied classical sculpture from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.

Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966.