Women in a shelter

The idea for the shelter drawings came to Moore one evening in September 1940. At Belsize Park station he was caught in an air raid and forced to take refuge on the platform. The other people sheltering in the darkened station fascinated him and he later wrote ‘I had never seen so many reclining figures and even the holes out of which the trains were coming seemed like the holes in my sculpture’. From then on, he began to make regular forays to tube stations in search of new material.

In January 1941 he was made an official war artist, which gave him far greater freedom of access to the shelters. Although he visited underground shelters across London, many of the drawings derive from scenes on the Central Line between Liverpool Street and Bethnal Green.

Moore did not draw the shelter scenes directly from life. It is likely, though, that he made quick notes and sketches to record his observations. A highly finished drawing like this would have been made in the studio.