Sir henry cecil autobiography of benjamin moore
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Carefully managed and never rushed, Frankel skipped the Derby after winning the 2,000 Guineas. Fragmentary elements of a rugged landscape of rocks, cliffs, and caves become the female figure.
By the mid 1950s, as his plastic art was becoming more three-dimensional, having an organic completeness from every point of view, drawing no longer served as a way of developing ideas for sculpture.
When Frankel retired in October 2012, the racing world sensed the end of an era.
One Last Royal Ascot
By the time of the 2013 Royal Ascot, Sir Henry Cecil was gravely ill but still had nine horses entered, including Frankel’s brother Noble Mission, the promising filly Hot Snap, and newcomer Joyeuse.
He never got to see them run.
On 11 June 2013, Sir Henry died in hospital in Cambridge at the age of 70.
Many large bronzes and fiberglass casts were placed on the terraces; the architecture of Florence and the hills beyond made this one of the most splendid sites in the world to exhibit sculpture on the enormous scale of Moore's late work. In 1946, the year of his first retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, his daughter Mary was born.
With the human figure as the central subject of his work, he used elements of landscape, the shapes of bones, shells, and pebbles to enlarge the three-dimensional language of sculpture. “I do everything by instinct really, not by the book,” he once told The Daily Telegraph. The point of departure for most of his subsequent sculpture has been the bones, shells, and flint stones that abound in the maquette studio at Much Hadham.
Late Period
After 1968 Moore showed a renewed interest in drawing as an activity independent of sculpture, and in printmaking, producing more than 260 lithographs and etchings, including the Elephant Skull, Auden, Stonehenge, and Sheep portfolios.
The major retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1968 was followed in 1972 by the magnificent exhibition at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence.
His widow, Jane Cecil, was granted a temporary licence to continue training his horses.
As racing fans gathered that week at Ascot, there was a profound sense of loss. He was candid about his vanity and fondness for shopping. Always ready to chat, sign an autograph, or simply offer a kind word, he won hearts not just with his results on the track but with his charm and humility.
A Gentleman of Racing
“He’s a lovely man, a people’s man.
The sports journalist became a trusted stable insider after being engaged in spring 2006 to help with the trainer's website and PR. He would remain part of the team right up until Cecil died in June 2013. In the form of his champions.
Containing fascinating detail and a wealth of new material, The Triumph of Henry Cecil shows how Cecil emerged from his slump, displayed relentless strength in the face of a cruel disease and trained the magnificent Frankel - as brilliant a racehorse as the sport has ever known.
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
The Mediterranean tradition, which on his Italian trip in 1925 had been in conflict with his interest in primitive art, had come once more to the surface.
His first retrospective at the Tate Gallery was held in 1951. The essential humanism of Moore's art has been nourished by sources as disparate as Paleolithic sculpture and the work of Picasso.
Moore's worldwide reputation as a sculptor and as a leading exponent of Organic Abstraction was now firmly established.
1950s
During the 1950s the two most important commissions were for a screen for the facade and the bronze Draped Reclining Figure (1952-3) for the new Time-Life Building in London, and the large Roman travertine marble Reclining Figure (1957-8) for UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Although Moore's interest in carving continued throughout his life, many of his best-known postwar sculptures - such as Family Group (1948-9; Museum of Modern Art, New York), King and Queen (1952-3; Joseph Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC), Warrior with Shield (1953-4; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto), Reclining Figure (1963-5; Lincoln Center, New York), and Nuclear Energy (1964-6; University of Chicago) - were made in plaster and cast in bronze.
But underneath it all was a trainer deeply in love with the sport and the horses in his care. “I like to think I understand my horses; they tell me what to do really.”
Setbacks and a Courageous Comeback
For all his success, Cecil’s life had its low points.
Rushmer's unique access over seven years - in which he saw Cecil at the best and worst of times - allows him to provide a fresh perspective on an incredible part of the trainer's career.
When he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2007, he kept it largely to himself and continued to train.
That same year, his fortunes began to turn.