HENRY MOORE | SMALL SHELL MOTHER AND CHILD

Lot Closed

December 14, 06:41 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of a Private New York Collector

HENRY MOORE

1898 - 1986

SMALL SHELL MOTHER AND CHILD

Inscribed Moore, stamped with the foundry mark Morris Singer Foundry and numbered 7/7

Bronze

Height (including base): 4⅛ in. (10.4 cm)

Conceived in 1980 and cast by the Morris Singer Foundry in a numbered edition of 7 plus one artist's proof.

This work is recorded in the archives of the Henry Moore Foundation.

This work is in very good condition. Attractive golden brown patina. Dust is present in the deepest crevices. There is an extremely minor nick to the base, and a few scattered pindot areas of verdigris to the sculpture.

The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot provided by Sotheby's. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colours and shades which are different to the lot's actual colour and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation because Sotheby's is not a professional conservator or restorer but rather the condition report is a statement of opinion genuinely held by Sotheby's. For that reason, Sotheby's condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot.

Alan Bowness, ed., Henry Moore, Complete Sculpture, 1980-1986, vol. 6, London, 1999, no. 802, illustration of another cast p. 39

This sculpture reflects Moore’s interest in medieval armor while referencing his most important motif: that of mother and child. The artist explained the inception of his interest in the shell form: "The idea of one form inside another form may owe some of its incipient beginnings to my interest at one stage when I discovered armour. I spent many hours in the Wallace Collection, in London, looking at armour. Now armour is an outside shell like the shell of a snail which is there to protect the more vulnerable forms inside, as it is in human armour which is hard and put on to protect the soft body. This has led sometimes to the idea of the Mother and Child where the outer form, the mother, is protecting the inner form, the child, like a mother does protect her child" (quoted in Alan Wilkinson, Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, pp. 213-214).