'The “Mother and Child" idea is one of my two or three obsessions, one of my inexhaustible subjects. This may have something to do with the fact that the "Madonna and Child" was so important in the art of the past and that one loves the old masters and has learned so much from them. But the subject itself is eternal and unending, with so many sculptural possibilities in it a small form in relation to a big form, the big form protecting the small one, and so on. It is such a rich subject, both humanly and compositionally, that I will always go on using it' (Moore quoted in A. Wilkinson (ed.), Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, p. 213).

One of the most fruitful and beloved of Moore’s repertoire was the mother and child theme, which he continued to explore throughout his career. This motif first appeared in his sculpture in 1922, while still a student at the Royal College of Art, London, (Bowness, no. 3) and displays the influence of the Mayan carvings Moore saw at the British Museum, with its totemic and angular qualities. In the 1920s and 30s Moore began abstracting his forms, focusing on the expression and symbol of the mother and child, instead of anatomical realism. During the war years the role of the mother and child was to take on a greater significance for the artist. Working on his Shelter Drawings (1940-41) Moore was faced with the truth of humanity, capturing not only acts of terror and brutality but more importantly examples of love and protection, as people lay huddled together in the Underground Shelters, their bodies pressed against one another for comfort and reassurance. These visions of human sympathy and kindness were to stay with Moore, imbuing within his mother and child sculptures a newfound tenderness.

The mother and child subject became inherent to Moore’s artistic expression. Within it he found a ‘universal symbol’, which like the reclining figure and helmet head motif (see lot 3 and 11), withstood his manipulation of form, to stand as a universally recognised emblem of life. Through this theme Moore not only referred to the parental relationship but explored the fundamental elements of birth, life and death, whilst discussing the notions of fertility and creation. It became for Moore an icon, which could describe the essence of human existence and could strike a personal resonance with the masses. Gail Gelburd reiterates the significance of the mother and child theme for Moore’s artistic practice; ‘Moore continuously found new ways of exploring the theme so that the imagery could take on meaning beyond the aesthetics of its form. The development of the mother and child imagery reveals that Moore's involvement in this theme reaches beyond maternity to an inquiry into birth and creativity. The theme of the mother and child, the mother giving birth, the child struggling to emerge from the maternal womb, is like the stone giving birth to the form, the form struggling to emerge from the block of stone’ (quoted in Exh.cat., Mother and Child, The Art of Henry Moore, New York, Hofstra University Museum, 1987, p. 37).

Standing Mother and Child: Holes is a beautiful example of Moore’s exploration into this theme, poetically capturing the concepts of struggle and dependency that Gelburd recognised in Moore’s work. By interlocking his forms Moore grants a tenderness to the work, as the mother cradles her squirming child, their faces titled towards one another. The rhythmic curved outline Moore deploys, which softy undulates throughout the piece, highlights the unification of the two figures, presenting them as one being. The abstraction of the figures emphasises this, preventing one from relating to the naturalism of the figures, instead building a connection based on the expression of form. In the early stages of his career Moore’s mother and child pieces were clearly defined as two separate figures but since the birth of his daughter Mary in May 1946, Moore began to merge his figures, as seen here, so that they become a single form.