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Bonhams International Fine Art Auctioneers will sell the most important sculpture by Henry Moore to appear at auction in recent years on Tuesday 29 November 2005. Mother and Child, 1931, described by Moore himself as “one of my best earlier pieces” was purchased soon after Henry Moore’s exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in the same year, for just £18–18 guinneas. Today, the work is estimated to fetch £1 million.

Mother & Child is beautifully carved in 1931 using the finest marble, verde di prato. At just 8 ¾ inches in height, it is a work whose small size is in inverse proportion to its extraordinary presence as a work of art. The piece represents a visual climax in the early career of Moore. Moore won a scholarship to Italy in 1925 and it is said that while in Florence, he spent every morning at the Brancacci Chapel drawing inspiration from Masaccio’s statuesque figures - an influence that can certainly be seen in the present work.

“It is an immense privilege to have the opportunity of researching & cataloguing such a beautiful and important sculpture, made by one of the leading British Artists of the 20th Century says Bonhams’ Head of Modern British Art, Matthew Bradbury. “It is important because so few pre World War II unique works by Moore come to auction. It is an image of true harmony; aesthetically satisfying and appealing and its size makes it accessible to every collector. The Mother & Child theme was one that obsessed Moore for 60 years and this piece was the genesis of the many additional bronzes that followed. Its pre-eminence among 20th Century British works of art cannot be overstated.”

Mother and Child, 1931 is a work of seminal importance and its provenance is as distinguished as its artistic quality and rarity – formerly being in the collection of V&A director, Sir Eric MacLagan K.C.V.O. Sir Eric was one of the most distinguished figures in the international art world between the first and second World Wars; a man who combined the roles of scholar, curator and collector to a rare degree. He was also one of the first collectors to buy the work of Henry Moore.

Sir Eric MacLagan extended well beyond the confines of his specialization in the field of Early Christian and Renaissance studies. Breaking stereotypes, he sported an intriguing and certainly pioneering side to his passions – a love of Modern Art. As one of the first private collectors to buy the work of Henry Moore, he meticulously documented the purchase in his household personal accounts, neatly handwritten on a sheet of paper. The single entry reads November ’31 H. Moore statuette 18.18.0.

Amusingly, the sculpture entry sits beside other purchase entries, including a beige stair carpet, a sewing machine and a refrigerator. In such prosaic surroundings, this is the first and only record of sale for this pre-eminent work of 20th Century British Art.

In 1946 Moore wrote to Sir Eric to encourage him to lend the statue to an exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; “I do hope you will be able to lend it. I know it will be away rather a long time, but I always look upon it as one of my best earlier pieces, and it will help to make the exhibition more complete than it would be without it.” Sir Eric agreed.

Moore, in the same letter, reinforces his fondness of this sculpture; “Thank you for agreeing to let me have it photographed as the Modern Museum of Art wanted a photograph of it specially and I have always wanted a photograph of it myself.”

Moore was a sculptor with few themes, but a multitude of resonance. The motif of mother and child, along with the reclining figure, was one that obsessed and intrigued Moore throughout his life. Intrigued by the organic and natural, Moore was ultimately bewitched by the human figure, and his sculptural quest into human form was both mystical and spiritual. He strove to depict the inner essence of his subject and presence, or, as he put it, ‘vitality’.

“Sculpture, for me, must have life in it, vitality. It must have a feeling for organic form, a certain pathos and warmth. A sculpture must have its own life and form,” he said.

Here, he is demonstrably an artist in supreme control, able to deliver the most intense and gratifying aesthetic experience, imbued with an intellectual and spiritual depth that is unparalleled in other examples of the same motif at that time. Mother and child, 1931 is a unique and individual statement.

The sculpture was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Chicago, and San Francisco and the last time it was ever seen in public was at The Arts Council of Great Britain of 1967.

This outstanding sculpture will go on tour and be previewed in six countries and will be sold in a sale of 20th Century British Art at Bonhams’ flagship galleries in New Bond Street, London.

For more details visit the Bonhams web site.