The subject of the reclining figure, explored in the present work, is probably the single most iconic image of Moore's oeuvre. Initially inspired by Mexican sculpture such as the Chacmool figures found at various Mayan and Aztec sites (see fig. 1), this subject appears throughout the Moore’s career, ranging from organic forms to near-abstract, geometric ones. On the use of the reclining figure in his art, Moore once said, "There are three fundamental poses of the human figure. One is standing, the other is seated, and the third is lying down... But of the three poses, the reclining figure gives the most freedom, compositionally and spatially. The seated figure has to have something to sit on. You can't free it from its pedestal. A reclining figure can recline on any surface. It is free and stable at the same t.mes . It fits with my belief that sculpture should be permanent, should last for eternity" (quoted in Exh. Cat., Columbus Museum of Art, Henry Moore: The Reclining Figure, 1984, p. 26).

Conceived in 1961, Two Piece Reclining Figure No. 4 employs the important element of sculptural separation and the creation of negative space. In the process of abstracting the human figure, Moore began to find a harmony between outdoor landscapes and the human figure. The artist began to create sculptures consisting of more than one piece in the 1930s when, according to his own account, he "realized what an advantage a separate two-piece composition could have in relating figures to landscape. Knees and breasts are mountains. Once these two parts become separated you don't expect it to be a naturalistic figure; therefore you can more justifiably make it like a landscape or a rock. If it is a single figure you can guess what it's going to be like. If it is in two pieces, there's a bigger surprise, you have more unexpected views; therefore the special advantage over painting—of having the possibility of many different views—is more fully exploited" (quoted in Carlton Lake, Atlantic Monthly, vol. 209, no. 1, Boston, January 1962, p. 44).

Moore created several sculptures with the title Two Piece Reclining Figure followed by numbers ranging from one to nine. Two Piece Reclining Figure No. 1 was created by the artist in 1959. No. 2 was made in 1960, No. 3 and the present work in 1961, No. 5 in 1963-64 and No. 9 in 1968. Moore explored further concepts of the fractured figure with sculpture created in three and four pieces. The present work and the other numbered Two Piece Reclining Figures vary in poses and size, but all possess a rough-hewn quality that seems to suggest rock formations within the landscape, an effect the artist would have surely been aware of. According to Ionel Jianou “By breaking the figure up into several pieces Moore greatly increases the potentialities of his plastic language. He can treat the bust and the lower part of the body like outcrops of rock, endowing them with the organic vitality of natural forms…. The relationship of sculpture with landscape need no longer be suggested or described. The sculpture becomes landscape. The raised knees of the Two-Piece Reclining Figure are rock. The bust has the dour solidity of hills. These invented forms have the organic vigor of the forms of nature. In his Two-Piece Reclining Figures Henry Moore achieves Landscape-Sculpture, a summit of his art” (Ionel Jianou, Henry Moore, New York, 1968, p. 98).

Other casts of this work are held in the collects ions of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; City Art Gallery, Wakefield and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.