In 1952, Lynn Chadwick - self-taught artist, former architectural draughtsman and Fleet Air Arm pilot - was propelled onto the international stage after only six years as a sculptor. One of eleven young British sculptors included in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale that year, Chadwick exhibited alongside an impressive group of fellow emerging artists including Kenneth Armitage, William Turnbull, Reg Butler, Bernard Meadows and Eduardo Paolozzi among others. It was in his catalogue introduction for this exhibition, New Aspects of British Sculpture, that art critic Herbert Read coined the phrase ‘the geometry of fear’ to describe the sharp edges and acute angles of the abstract and figurative sculpture exhibited. This marked the emergence of a new generation of British artists.
Chadwick found further acclaim when he won the coveted International Prize for Sculpture for his solo exhibition at the 1956 Venice Biennale, beating international powerhouses including Alberto Giacometti to first place.
'Chadwick has been one of the revelations of the Biennale. Quite apart from the distinguished and highly original quality of his imagination, it is the beauty and sensitivity of execution that impresses. He may make use of the "creative accident", but the very sureness of his control makes most modern sculpture look simply incompetent by the side of his work. This Biennale award marks the emergence of Lynn Chadwick as a figure of international artistic importance'
In winning this prestigious prize, historically reserved for well-established international figures including Henry Moore (the winner of 1948), Mario Marini (1952) and Hans Arp (1954), Chadwick demonstrated he was on his way to becoming one of the most important and influential British sculptors of the past century, alongside Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Speaking nearly 40 years after the event, Lynn Chadwick commented:
It was a new experience for me to be shown in an international setting… [the sculptures] were very beautifully placed, in this building, which had windows, and the light was coming in through, and there was a wonderful feeling there… After all, coming out of nothing, to be accepted as readily as I was in the beginning, it couldn’t, I couldn’t have had it better.
An accomplished and idiosyncratic sculptor, Chadwick was drawn to certain motifs and themes that recurred throughout his career, two of which are demonstrated in this example of Sitting Woman in Robes IV. Chadwick often contorted the human form, using a triangle to represent a head, pointed sticks for legs. He also found great satisfaction in the implication of movement in the drapery of a cloak, skirt or streaming hair. The combination of these two motifs in the present work, produces a sculpture that is both sternly poised and innately feminine.
Chadwick has always been intrigued by movement, either actual or implied, in his sculpture… his cloaked women... of the 1980s explored figures in motion. Sometimes their cloaks and draperies flow out in the wind from behind them, or are caught by a gust and wrap themselves around the figures.

Sitting Woman in Robes IV is representative of Chadwick’s fertile period of the 1970s and 80s which had progressed from the block-like shapes of the 50s and 60s to the smoother, sweeping forms and delicate geometry seen here. The points of the subject’s head, shoulders and feet are matched perfectly with the smooth curves of the torso and drape of the skirt which imbue the sculpture with a softness and flow.