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Lot Essay
“An artist’s gift is that he can project his imagination. Balzac, for example, carried away on his imagination could write for days and nights on end, living in his mind the lives of his characters. And yet, of course, an artist uses experiences he’s had in life. Such an experience in my life was the birth of my daughter Mary, which re-invoked in my sculpture my Mother and Child theme. A new experience can bring to the surface something deep in one’s mind” (Henry Moore quoted in J. Hedgecoe, ed., Henry Spencer Moore, London, 1968, p. 173).
Conceived in 1952, Moore’s Mother and Child on Ladderback Rocking Chair belongs to a series of works exploring the playful relationship between a mother and her child, which he executed in the early 1950s. This subject figured among the very first sculptures the artist executed in 1922, and together with the reclining figure, it would occupy Moore for his entire career. In the present work, the artist molded the form of a woman leaning back in a rocking chair and endearingly holding her infant upright—the child sits facing her mother while sitting on her lap. Although figurative, the sculpture illustrates the gentle curves and abstract roundness of Moore’s forms. By abstracting the features of both figures, they are able to take on the role of Mother and Child in the general sense, rather than depict specific individuals.
Yet, Moore maintains the emotional potency of the work and asserts its real-world, material presence; since it is not anchored to a base, it is physically able to be rocked. Moreover, the small-scale of Moore’s series of similar sculptures fits perfectly with their interactive and playful theme. In his words, “the rocking chair sculptures were done for my daughter Mary as toys which actually rock” (quoted in J. Hedgecoe, ed., op. cit., p. 178). Mary, his only child with his wife Irina, was born five years prior to the artist conceiving of this work.
Conceived in 1952, Moore’s Mother and Child on Ladderback Rocking Chair belongs to a series of works exploring the playful relationship between a mother and her child, which he executed in the early 1950s. This subject figured among the very first sculptures the artist executed in 1922, and together with the reclining figure, it would occupy Moore for his entire career. In the present work, the artist molded the form of a woman leaning back in a rocking chair and endearingly holding her infant upright—the child sits facing her mother while sitting on her lap. Although figurative, the sculpture illustrates the gentle curves and abstract roundness of Moore’s forms. By abstracting the features of both figures, they are able to take on the role of Mother and Child in the general sense, rather than depict specific individuals.
Yet, Moore maintains the emotional potency of the work and asserts its real-world, material presence; since it is not anchored to a base, it is physically able to be rocked. Moreover, the small-scale of Moore’s series of similar sculptures fits perfectly with their interactive and playful theme. In his words, “the rocking chair sculptures were done for my daughter Mary as toys which actually rock” (quoted in J. Hedgecoe, ed., op. cit., p. 178). Mary, his only child with his wife Irina, was born five years prior to the artist conceiving of this work.