Family Group

Details

Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Family Group
bronze with brown patina
Height: 5½in. (14cm.)
Original terracotta version executed in 1945; this bronze version cast by the Fiorini foundry, 1955-1957

Provenance

Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, Nov. 15, 1989, lot 67

Literature

H. Reed, Henry Moore, Sculpture and Drawings, New York, 1949, no. 70r (larger terracotta version illustrated)
ed. D. Sylvester, Henry Moore, Complete Sculpture, London, 1957, vol. 1 (1921-48), no. 235 (larger terracotta version illustrated, p. 150)
W. Grohmann, The Art of Henry Moore, London, 1960, no. 121 (terracotta version illustrated) J. Hedgecoe and H. Moore, Henry Moore, New York, 1968, p. 162 (terracotta version illustrated) R. Melville, Henry Moore, Sculpture and Drawings, 1921-1969, London 1970, no. 343 (terracotta version illustrated)
ed. D. Mitchinson and H. Moore, Henry Moore Sculpture, with comments by the artist, New York, 1981, no. 178 (larger terracotta version illustrated, p. 95)

Lot Essay

Although the theme of the mother and child reoccurs throughout Moore's oeuvre, the birth of his daughter Mary in 1946 provided the direct impetus for the family group series. In 1946 and 1947, Moore produced a number of versions of the family group in bronze, stone, and terracotta, each differing in size and in degree of naturalism. Working the surfaces of his sculptures after casting, he was even able to vary the expression of different examples of the same composition. All the versions of the family group, however, reveal the artist's long-standing interest in the link between parent and child and his readiness to enter into a community such as the family. As Moore himself once wrote, "To be an artist is to believe in life, and this includes community life..." (W. Grohmann, op. cit., p. 142)