Moore’s mothers are often emotionally and physically intertwined with their children, but this maquette also demonstrates Moore’s emphatic belief that a sculpture must have its own life. Though small in size, Moore has created the illusion of energy by paying particular attention to the bottom half of the work, modelling draped areas whilst pitting and scratching surfaces around the belly from where it appears the figures are growing organically from molten bronze. Pushing upwards and outwards from the constraints of the solid, rock-like shape below, the top half of the work is wider and smoother, the mother and child softly morphing into shape before our eyes. In this simultaneous birth we can already see the curve of a female contour, but the child is undistinguished, still unknown. Moore communicates an empathic understanding, partly experienced from the birth of his own daughter, of the significant changes a woman’s body and mind undergo as she and her child adopt their relative identities and roles.
Text by Sarah Gillett, Visual Arts Manager, British Council, from the catalogue for the exhibitionHenry Moore in Qatar, 2007