Sculpture Stone Mother & Child Biomorphic Mid-Century Modern

A large, 28" high, modernist, biomorphic, Mother & Child, stone sculpture, mid-20th century. Artist unknown. Private Collection.

This marble sculpture is equally striking displayed inside or outside within a landscape. As a medium stone is very practical within a landscape as it is hardwearing and the patina improves with weathering over time. "Sculpture is an art of the open air... I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know." Henry Moore

This large sculpture reflects the universal theme of the cycle of life and the evolution of humanity, while expressing the tenderness and care felt by one human being for another. The distinctive pared down, soft form of the mother holding her child creates a rhythmic fluidity in the composition and represents the different cycles of life.

The mother is physically fused with the child and their intimate bond is illustrated by way the child is held by the mother as their loving and nurturing gaze is directed at the viewer. The artist balances the cuddling arm of the mother with by elongating the other arm and creating a subtle rotation in the body which holds the composition. The artist has reduced the figures to their essential form, removing all features and paring down the form creating a feeling of eternity which is also reinforced by using stone which comes from the earth. The simplicity alludes to divine maternity, although the mother and child are accessible and human, in monumental broad and simple form.

Measures: length 26cm., 10" depth 17cm., 7" height 71cm., 28"

Mother & Child The mother and child is a 'subject so consecrated by its antiquity, so hallowed by its profound significance, so endeared by its associations with the softest and deepest of our human sympathies, that our mind has never wearied of its repetition, nor the eye become saturated with its beauty'. (The Legends of the Madonna Anna Jameson)

The image of a mother and child summons feelings of warmth, love and protection and is used as a powerful symbolic motif of fecundity, maternity and creativity throughout the history of art. From the fertility goddess figures of the Paleolithic period to the twentieth century, the mother and child theme has recurringly emerged as an empowering, symbolic theme in art used to define a subject's inner reality while presenting it in a new form that illuminates new meanings (Susanne Langer).

Changes in beliefs and society are reflected through different portrayal of the mother and child image over time. From the fertility goddess of ancient culture to the symbol of Christianity as the Madonna and Child and, as religious influence on society, declined becoming a secular conception. In the 19th century Mary Cassatt's paintings reflected these changes as the mother and child became a symbol of importance and influence in society and Kathe Kollwitz explored the horrors of human existence through the voice of motherhood. In the 20th century Henry Moore sees the mother and child as the epitome of creativity and allied himself with the mother as a creative force in bringing about form.