Family Group

Henry Moore’s postwar semi-abstract sculptures are informed by primitive art, Egyptian and Mexican sculpture, and the human figure. They often depict reclining figures or family groups with distinct, evocative hollow spaces. This work was inspired by Moore’s wartime drawings of sheltering families in London’s Underground. It also reflects his impressions on the birth of his daughter that year. Expanding the family unit to show a father, mother, and their two children, this work is considered one of the more complex of Moore’s 17 versions of this motif, which led to four monumental sculptures. Moore’s use of bronze, a relatively new medium to him, brought a more fluid and deeply felt emotion to this symbol of family closeness. The year this sculpture was created, Duncan Phillips gave Moore his first museum exhibition in America.