Small Mother and Child Relief (LH 916)

Private Collection

John Hedgecoe and Henry Moore, "Henry Spencer Moore", Nashville, 1968, page 61 Alan Bowness (ed.), "Henry Moore: Complete Sculpture, Volume 6, Sculpture 1980-86", London, 1988, catalogue no. 916, page 63

Throughout his career, Henry Moore produced a vast number of sculptures of mother and children, as well as family groups. Following the chaos of the Second World War, Britain turned to the subject of the family, in particular, as the focal point for destroyed communities and an embodiment of a national identity. Moore developed a preoccupation with mother and child works drawn from the art historical canon, which he described as having “been a universal theme from the beginning of time and some of the earliest sculptures we’ve found from the Neolithic Age are of a Mother and Child”. In this representational work, the British sculptor and Modernist artist offers a touching scene of parenting: a seated mother holds her child upright on her lap as they gaze at each other. She is protective, grasping firmly the child’s upper arms to keep him steady. Despite the simplicity of the work, its significance is personal and universal and testifies to the enduring bonds of familial love. This work is recorded in the Henry Moore Foundation Archive as no. LH 916 cast 0.