D’Arcy Thompson’s ‘On Growth and Form’

Essays on Sculpture 70

In 1917, the mathematical biologist, zoologist and Classics scholar D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948) published On Growth and Form, a poetic and mathematical study of scale, gravity, order and process.

This book has lodged itself within the consciousness of twentieth century sculpture. Henry Moore himself was introduced to the book while studying in Leeds in 1919.

The essay accompanies an exhibition which presents a selection of Thompson’s teaching models, including an intricate glass model of a jellyfish made in the Dresden Blaschka studio, alongside four drawings made by Moore in the 1930s, known as the ‘Transformation’ drawings.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 14 May – 17 August 2014.

Published in the Henry Moore Institute Essays on Sculpture series.

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