Family Group

The work began with drawings and maquettes made by Moore in the mid-1930s after Walter Gropius suggested a Moore sculpture for Impington Village College. The college opened in 1939, but the war stopped Cambridgeshire County Council giving a commission to Moore. The council's education officer Henry Morris approached Moore again in 1944, and Moore made a small clay model in 1945, now held by the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, Hertfordshire. In this model, the father's head had a distinctive notch, also seen in other early works such as Four-Piece Composition: Reclining Figure of 1934, and Reclining Figure 1938. Moore also made several other clay models, some cast in bronze, with…

The sculpture group comprises three human figures, on a low bench: woman, man, and child. It measures 154 x and weighs 475 kg. The woman sits to the right, with hair gathered in a bun, small breasts, and a skirt draped round her body and legs. She is holding the child in the air above her lap with both hands. The man sits to the left, supporting the child with his left hand, and resting his right hand on the woman's left shoulder. The two adults mirror each other, turning slightly towards each other and leaning slightly back, with their outside arms curving towards the centre of the composition. Moore said: "the arms of the mother and the father [intertwine] with the child forming a knot…