One of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, Henry Moore is internationally known for his distinctive and influential interpretation of the human form.

Moore engaged with the subject of the mother and child recurringly throughout his career, exploring the conceptual and aesthetic richness of the subject, which he described as “eternal and unending, with so many sculptural possibilities in it”, rich both “humanly and compositionally”. The artist’s emphasis on the mother’s nurturing role has been seen as a response to the human suffering that characterised the Second World War, but it also had a deeply personal dimension for Moore, as he and his wife Irina struggled to have a child until the birth of their daughter Mary.

In ‘Semi-Seated Mother and Child’ is, Moore uses the composition to highlight the tender relationship between the figures. He was particularly drawn to the essential balance between internal and external forms, suggesting that the relationship between ‘an outer protection to an inner form’ is like the relationship between mother and child. The anonymity of both figures elevates the sculpture to a powerful representation of the universal potency of the maternal subject.

By the time he created ‘Semi-Seated Mother and Child’, Moore had achieved an unprecedented level of critical acclaim, with numerous public commissions internationally, a Museum of Modern Art (New York) retrospective and the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1948. In 1981, around the time the present work was created, the British Council staged the largest ever exhibition of Moore’s work, attesting to his endlessly creative and prolific career with almost 600 works, which toured from London to Madrid, Lisbon, and Barcelona.

The artist’s important role in the history of Modern art endures, with public commissions praised worldwide, and works featured prominently in major collections and exhibitions, including Tate Britain and the Henry Moore Foundation, London; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Musée Rodin, Paris.