Mother and Child
Mother and Child
Henry Moore (British, 1898 – 1986)
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Having decided to become an artist at age 11 against the wishes of his family, Henry Moore is renowned today as Britain’s greatest 20th-century sculptor. His signature style is an abstract monumental reclining figure. Inspired by a Toltec-Mayan figure he observed at the Louvre, Moore’s bronze and marble sculptures experiment with mass and form.
Predominantly known for his large-scale public art bronze sculptures, the Mother and Child on view here is a much smaller example of Moore’s work and most likely a maquette for a larger sculpture. By the late 1940s, these maquettes were often shaped by Moore’s own hands—a process which gives his work an organic feeling. Moore’s fascination with the Mother and Child theme first emerged in 1946, shortly after the death of his mother and the birth of his daughter Mary.
