A major new exhibition is to cast doubt on the inspiration for some of artist Henry Moore's most famous works by suggesting he copied several drawings from magazine photographs rather than coming from his own war time experiences.

They are the images that affirmed Henry Moore as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, inspired, he claimed, by a moving journey on the London Underground during the Blitz.

But a major new exhibition on Moore's work is to cast doubt on the artist's inspiration for some of his most famous works.

Henry Moore, a retrospective of the artist's work at Tate Britain, will suggest that several of his drawings completed during the Second World War were not inspired by Moore's own wartime experiences, but copied from photographs in a magazine.

Known as the Shelter Drawings, Moore's powerful depictions in gouache and ink of Londoners sheltering in the London Underground from the Blitz, made between 1940 and 1941, proved hugely popular.