Lot Essay
This sculpture was cast from one of the terracotta maquettes Moore created while designing the Madonna and Child for St. Matthews Church in Northampton, England. Although the mother and child was a constant theme in Moore's oeuvre from the brginning of his career, he said that the commission for this sculpture "was one of the most difficult and heart-searching sculptures that I ever tried to do." (as quoted in ed. D. Mitchinson, Henry Moore, Sculpture, with comments by the artist, London, 1981, p. 90)
The implication of a religious subject was difficult for him to incororate into his work.
I began thinking of the Madonna and Child for St. Matthews by considering in what ways a Madonna and Child differs from a carving of just a Mother and Child--that is, by considering how in my opinion religious art differs from secular art.
It's not easy to describe in words what this difference is, except by saying in general terms that the Madonna and Child should have an austerity and a nobility, and some touch of grandeur (even hieratic aloofness) which is missing in the everyday Mother and Child. (Ibid.)
Moore did not accept the commission outright. He first completed a group of notebook drawings from which he made clay models, and then decided if they satisfied his idea of the subject. (A.G. Wilkinson, The Drawings of Henry Moore, London, 1984, pp. 290-291)
The implication of a religious subject was difficult for him to incororate into his work.
I began thinking of the Madonna and Child for St. Matthews by considering in what ways a Madonna and Child differs from a carving of just a Mother and Child--that is, by considering how in my opinion religious art differs from secular art.
It's not easy to describe in words what this difference is, except by saying in general terms that the Madonna and Child should have an austerity and a nobility, and some touch of grandeur (even hieratic aloofness) which is missing in the everyday Mother and Child. (Ibid.)
Moore did not accept the commission outright. He first completed a group of notebook drawings from which he made clay models, and then decided if they satisfied his idea of the subject. (A.G. Wilkinson, The Drawings of Henry Moore, London, 1984, pp. 290-291)