BERNARD MEADOWS | STANDING MOTHER AND CHILD

Acquired by the present owner in the 1960s

Alan Bowness, Bernard Meadows, Sculpture and Drawings, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1995, cat. no.BM 22, illustrated p.86.

Having studied at the Norwich School of Art, Meadows became Henry Moore’s first assistant in 1936 and later studied at the Royal College of Art before being propelled onto the International stage when he was chosen as one of eight young British sculptors to show at the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1952 alongside his contemporaries Lynn Chadwick, Reg Butler, Kenneth Armitage, Eduardo Paolozzi, Geoffrey Clarke, Robert Adams and William Turnbull. Conceived in the same year, the subject matter of the present work focusing on the mother and child is rare in Meadow’s oeuvre and undoubtedly a nod to one of Moore’s most enduring themes whilst the elongated figure relates closely to Meadows’s exploration of the human form in sculptures such as Standing Figure (1950, concrete, BM5) and Meadow’s commission for the 1951 Festival of Britain, Standing Figure (1951, Elmwood, BM17). The dynamic relationship between internal and external forms is also an idea that Moore was exploring concurrently in sculptures such as Upright Internal/External Form (1952-3, bronze, LH296) and demonstrates the close working relationship between the two artists, exchanging both ideas and methods of working. After teaching at the Royal College of Art for more than 30 years, Meadows later returned to assist Moore in the late 1970s with his final series of works.