The theme of mother and child was one Moore returned to throughout his career — a central and enduring subject. His early masterful treatment of this motif earned him his first major public commission in 1943, for the Madonna and Child at St. Matthew’s Church in Northampton. His experiences postwar, as well as the death of his mother and the birth of his daughter, encouraged and inspired him to enshrine this motif in particular. He wrote:
‘…the subject itself is eternal and unending, with so many sculptural possibilities in it – a small form in relation to a big form, the big form protecting the small one, and so on. It is such a rich subject, both humanly and compositionally, that I will always go on using it.’
The present work, conceived and cast in 1982, is a particularly tender representation of this subject. The child sits upright in their mother’s lap, safely encircled by her arms on either side. While connected and caring, there is also a degree of independence, with the child able to take in the world from a comforting and secure position. The smooth modelling of the form lends a sense of ease and grace, and speaks to the natural maternal feeling which Moore sought to capture.