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Lot Essay
Moore’s first investigations into the theme of the mother and child were conceived during the early 1920s whilst still at the Royal College of Art, and the subject remained a boundless well of inspiration throughout his career, with it becoming his most widely admired signature theme.
Mother and Child: Crossed Feet displays Moore’s mastery of combining human form with naturalistic elements. This can be seen here in the mother’s skirt, with its simplified curved organic shape with deep striations denoting pleats, which resembles a shell or cascading water. It can also be seen in the figure’s forms - the mother’s limbs and the baby’s face - evoking the array of pebbles and bones that Moore collected. Gail Gelburd explains, ‘Moore continuously found new ways of exploring the theme so that the imagery could take on meaning beyond the aesthetics of its form. The development of the mother and child imagery reveals that Moore’s involvement in this theme reaches beyond maternity to an inquiry into birth and creativity. The theme of the mother and child, the mother giving birth, the child struggling to emerge from the maternal womb, is like the stone giving birth to the form, the form struggling to emerge from the block of stone' (exhibition catalogue, Mother and Child: The Art of Henry Moore, Hempstead, New York, Hofstra University, 1987, p. 37).
Within Moore’s work, such as Mother and Child: Crossed Feet, one can see a myriad of influences, from the sculptures of Ancient Egyptian and Pre-Columbian cultures, to the Madonna and Child works of the Renaissance era, all of whom revered mother-child imagery, viewing them as powerful symbols of rejuvenation and fertility. Indeed, the Mother and Child was one of the most common and evolving artistic themes and cannot be defined by any one religion, continent or century. As was the practice with Moore, he took inspiration from many sources, both religious and secular. What was of the utmost importance to the artist was that his work was instilled with a human quality that could speak to people on a personal level, while also acting as a universal symbol that could transcend the boundaries of religion and culture. Moore explained, ‘It has 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. I discovered, when drawing, I could turn every little scribble, blot or smudge into a Mother and Child. So that I was conditioned, as it were, to see it in everything’ (H. Moore and J. Hedgecoe, Henry Moore, New York, 1968, p. 61).
For additional information about the Foundation Mireille and James Lévy, please see the introduction to lot 176.
Mother and Child: Crossed Feet displays Moore’s mastery of combining human form with naturalistic elements. This can be seen here in the mother’s skirt, with its simplified curved organic shape with deep striations denoting pleats, which resembles a shell or cascading water. It can also be seen in the figure’s forms - the mother’s limbs and the baby’s face - evoking the array of pebbles and bones that Moore collected. Gail Gelburd explains, ‘Moore continuously found new ways of exploring the theme so that the imagery could take on meaning beyond the aesthetics of its form. The development of the mother and child imagery reveals that Moore’s involvement in this theme reaches beyond maternity to an inquiry into birth and creativity. The theme of the mother and child, the mother giving birth, the child struggling to emerge from the maternal womb, is like the stone giving birth to the form, the form struggling to emerge from the block of stone' (exhibition catalogue, Mother and Child: The Art of Henry Moore, Hempstead, New York, Hofstra University, 1987, p. 37).
Within Moore’s work, such as Mother and Child: Crossed Feet, one can see a myriad of influences, from the sculptures of Ancient Egyptian and Pre-Columbian cultures, to the Madonna and Child works of the Renaissance era, all of whom revered mother-child imagery, viewing them as powerful symbols of rejuvenation and fertility. Indeed, the Mother and Child was one of the most common and evolving artistic themes and cannot be defined by any one religion, continent or century. As was the practice with Moore, he took inspiration from many sources, both religious and secular. What was of the utmost importance to the artist was that his work was instilled with a human quality that could speak to people on a personal level, while also acting as a universal symbol that could transcend the boundaries of religion and culture. Moore explained, ‘It has 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. I discovered, when drawing, I could turn every little scribble, blot or smudge into a Mother and Child. So that I was conditioned, as it were, to see it in everything’ (H. Moore and J. Hedgecoe, Henry Moore, New York, 1968, p. 61).
For additional information about the Foundation Mireille and James Lévy, please see the introduction to lot 176.