Mother and Child is a small-scale bronze depicting the definitive subject of Henry Moore’s career. The eponymous figures are entwined in an intimate embrace. The bronze is cast in a single unit and the figures are locked together. The smooth, rounded sides of the work suggest that the model began as a single, egg-like enclosure, from which sections were successively removed and the shape of the figures gradually elaborated. The heads of both the mother and child are typically schematic for Moore’s mature work, with staring round eyeholes, and they are reduced in proportion to the bodies. Despite the homely, humane quality of Moore’s theme, the sculpture has formality and strong material values. The rounded wooden base gives the whole a totemic quality. The compact size of Mother and Child, along with its refined patina of wood and metal, make it a rarefied work of sculpture that descends from the tradition of small-scale Renaissance bronzes, once kept in the connoisseur’s studiolo or cabinet and intended for inspection at close quarters with both the eyes and the hands.