Mother and Child: Paleo belongs to a series of Moore’s sculptures that explore the indelible bond and loving relationship between a mother and her child, a theme which dominated Moore’s oeuvre. The heightened sense of parental love in Moore’s late work coincides with the birth of his first grandchild in 1977. From this point onwards, his Mother and Child works found a renewed sense of power and intimacy as he simplified his forms, emphasising the expression of the spirit of his figures. Although heightened by personal experiences, the Mother and Child theme was a constant source of inspiration throughout the artist’s career: 'From very early on I had an obsession with the Mother and Child theme. It has been a universal theme from the beginning of time. Some of the earliest sculptures we’ve found from the Neolithic Age are of a mother and child. I discovered when drawing I could turn every little scribble, blot or smudge into a Mother and Child' (Henry Moore quoted in H. Moore and J. Hedgecoe, Henry Moore, New York, 1968, p. 61).