The mother and child motif was one that Henry Moore continued to revisit for the duration of his career. It is an image which has religious connotations, of the Madonna and Child, but it is also one that is t.mes less and universal to all. For Moore, the bond between the mother and child was widely relatable, and indestructible through the t.mes s of hardship such as World War II, that Moore witnessed in his lifet.mes . It was also a bond that he experienced early on from his own close relationship with his mother.

With its roots in Moore’s earliest childhood experiences, Moore explored the mother and child motif in more and less direct guises throughout the 1920s and 1930s: from babies suckled and cradled by their mothers to more abstract interpretations of two separate but related forms, or hollows with distinct elements held within the interior space.

During World War II, Moore was commissioned to carve a Madonna and Child in Hornton stone for St Matthew’s Church in Northampton but, even more direct to the increased complexity of the family group motif, as an Official War Artist, Moore produced numerous drawings of civilians huddled in underground stations, sheltering from the bombings raids over London. These figures, clinging together for comfort and warmth, and draped in blankets, were of fundamental significance to Moore’s creative development of the family group scene and demonstrated the political bearing of his universal motifs. He wrote:

In the years after the war, the architect Eugene Rosenberg commissioned Moore to create a large-scale sculpture for the Barclay School, in Stevenage, England. This school was designed as a focal point for the entire community, for parents as well as children, and thus Moore settled on the family group. The result of this project was the monumental version of Family Group, which was installed at the school in 1950, for which the present work is the maquette.

Other monumental Family Group casts are in the collects ions of the Tate, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Hakone Museum, Hakone; and the Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena.

In a similar fashion to the Family Group works, Moore created many drawings of civilians huddling in underground stations to shelter from the bombings raids over London. These figures, clinging together for comfort and warmth in this t.mes of fear, had profound significance on Moore in his outlook and long-term interest in the family unit. For Moore and many other Post-War artists, the family became a symbol of hope and love, a soothing antidote for the traumatic experiences that many had recently experienced during the war.

The family group also had a particularly personal resonance as Moore and his wife, Irina, had their first and only child, Mary, in 1946 after many years of marriage. She was a much loved and longed for addition to the family, and thus the household grouping in Moore’s sculpture took on a new significance.

In fact, the present cast was owned by their daughter Mary herself and it could represent Moore’s own family – as there is a mother and father figure cradling just one child. They both sit on a bench and mirror one another holding the child close to them:

Furthermore, each face of the trio is endowed with finely unique details, delicately recessed bronze that denote eyes, eyebrows and mouths. Mother and father are subtly differentiated: the mother’s legs are shrouded in a skirt-like drapery seen in the Madonna and Child of St Matthew’s Church and her hair drawn into a bun whilst the father’s head is cleaved, his thighs conspicuous and his shoulders broader and more angular than the mother’s soft shaped shoulders and breasts. Joined together through the child, who is the focal point of the composition, physical intimacy thus becomes a metaphor for emotional bonds and familial support. Moore realises the hands of the couple with precision, each finger individually delineated. The father’s right hand rests gently on the mother’s shoulder whilst the other supports their child in its sitting position, legs draped over the father’s arm, and the mother grasps the baby’s waist. The outer shoulders of both mother and father curve gently inwards, an intimate protective stance that encloses their child and unifies the group.

The above demonstrates the immense significance and value that this work had for Moore: both on a personal and socio-political level. It has only passed through one other collects ion since his own family.

The sculpture is poised between Moore’s modernist sensibility for abstraction and touching naturalistic details. The outer shoulders of both mother and father curve gently inwards, an intimate protective stance that encloses their child and unifies the group. Allied with its exquisite green patina finish and exceptional provenance, the present work is a test.mes nt to Moore’s unparalleled achievements in sculpture: and the legacy and importance that he still holds today.