Family Group (Moore)
sculpture series by Henry Moore (LH 269)
Family Group (LH 269) is a sculpture by Henry Moore. It was his first large-scale bronze sculpture, and his first large bronze with multiple castings. Made for Barclay School in Stevenage, it evolved from drawings in the 1930s, through a series of models to bronze castings in 1950–51. It is also one of the last important sculptures that Moore developed from preliminary drawings: in future, he worked mainly from found objects, maquettes and models.
The sculpture depicts a group of three human figures, a stereotypical nuclear family comprising a man, a woman and a small child. The two adults are sitting on a bench, holding the child between them. The figures are slightly smaller than life size. Three of the five castings from the 1950s are still owned by the original owners, Barclay School, the Tate Gallery, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The others are held by the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan, and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, with a later cast at the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, Hertfordshire.
Background
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.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Family Group (Moore)” is sculpture series by Henry Moore (LH 269). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Family, Group and Moore, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “sculpture series by Henry Moore (LH 269)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19760121. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Family Group (Moore)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Family Group (Moore) primary sources, Family Group (Moore) archive and Family research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Family Group (Moore)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.