How did the death of Henry Moore’s mother and the birth of his daughter affect the themes in his work?

The death of Henry Moore’s mother in 1944 and the birth of his daughter, Mary, in 1946, transformed the theme of the family—specifically the mother-and-child relationship—into a deeply personal subject for the artist.1

While Moore had explored mother-and-child groups earlier in his career, these life events imbued the theme with new significance. Consequently, he treated this subject in several major works throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, moving away from the experimentation of the 1930s toward a more naturalistic and humanistic approach.12