Maquette for Madonna and Child
- Artist: Henry Moore OM, CH
- Date: 1943, cast 1944–5
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: object: 146 x 54 x 67 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Maquette for Madonna and Child” by Henry Moore. The piece is a bronze cast from 1944–45 of a terracotta model he made in 1943. It measures about 146 mm tall, 54 mm wide and 67 mm deep – a tiny yet detailed figure.
Moore had been fascinated with the mother‑and‑child theme since the 1920s, but when the vicar of St Matthew’s in Northampton asked him to create a Madonna sculpture he was unsure how his secular style would fit a religious subject. The bronze capture is unusually naturalistic and full of Renaissance references: Christ wrapped in a simple pose, the infant in gentle arms.
In short, this maquette shows Moore balancing modern abstraction with familiar iconography, producing a work that feels both contemporary and instantly recognizable.
See it in person
Maquette for Madonna and Child is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
