The present work is one of an extremely small number of maquettes cast circa 1950-52 as a study for the large Madonna and Child sculpture commissioned for the Convent of the Holy Child, Cavendish Square, London.

Epstein’s serene Cavendish Square Madonna and Child cast in lead is an iconic masterpiece of 20th century British sculpture. Dating from towards the end of his life, it has been reproduced in books and articles almost as often as the young sculptor’s shocking Rock Drill and other masterworks such as his Jacob and the Angel and Lucifer.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus commissioned the architect and goldsmith Louis Osman (1914-1996) to restore their bomb damaged buildings at 11-13 Cavendish Square, London. This involved a bridge linking two of the 18th century houses. A key part of Osman’s conception was that there be a first rate sculpture placed on its facade as if suspended in mid-air that would have to be cast in lead from the roofing of the bombed building. He stated ‘if the sculpture is important then it must be given its head, like the role of a soloist in a concerto: the orchestra being like the architecture, with a solo instrument speaking its poetry, related but clear and independent.’ The prospect of a Jew creating a Christian icon raised some opposition, but Osman backed Epstein in preference to Henry Moore and John Skeaping and the 70 year old replied that he had ‘never had such a wonderful proposal.’ A similar controversy rose again in 1957 when Epstein was commissioned the bronze sculpture St Michael's Victory over the Devil for the south end of the east wall outside of the new Coventry Cathedral. Some members of the cathedral reconstruction committee objected to Epstein being commissioned, with one complaining "But he is a Jew", to which the architect Basil Spence responded "So was Jesus Christ". Both Osman and Epstein quickly sensed their collaboration would result in a masterpiece. Perhaps surprisingly the controversial non-Catholic sculptor and the nuns developed a deep sense of mutual respect and understanding, succinctly expressed in a passage from a letter he wrote to the Reverend Mother ‘the reward is that I had the opportunity to do a lasting work, carrying a spiritual message to all.’

Technically, Epstein has come up with a brilliant solution to his architect’s demands that the statue should (a) seem to “levitate” and (b) be made of lead – an absurd contradiction at first sight. He has made the figures very flat: this reduces their weight as viewed, and makes them seem to flit over the surface like the shadow. Artistically, he accentuates their flatness by conceiving the figures in a hieratic style. The early Christian painters, it has often been remarked, were not ignorant of perspective – they rejected it deliberately, because they were using appearance to denote a reality beyond appearance.

Epstein was born on 10 November 1880 in New York , of Polish-Jewish parentage. He attended art classes at the Art Students League 1896 and then went to night school 1899 where he began sculpting under George Grey Bernard. On the proceeds of illustrating Hutchins Hapgood's The Spirit of the Ghetto (1902), he was able to go to Paris and spent six months at the École des Beaux-Arts, and afterwards studied at the Académie Julian. Epstein settled in London in 1905 and became a British citizen in 1907. He met Picasso, Brancusi, Modigliani in Paris in 1912-13. He then returned to England and worked near Hastings from 1913 to 1916. He was conscripted into the British army in 1917 as a private in the 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, known unofficially as the Jewish Legion.

Epstein became a founding member of the London Group in 1913, and that same year had his first solo show at the Twenty-One Gallery, Adelphi, London. Thereafter he exhibited mainly at the Leicester Galleries. After 1916 he lived and worked in London for the rest of his life. He briefly visited New York in 1927, to attend his one-man show at the Ferragil Gallery. The Arts Council honoured him with a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1953. He was knighted in 1954 and died in London on 19 August 1959.

Jacob Epstein made his name as a sculptor of monuments and portraits, and as an occasional painter and illustrator. In his lifetime he championed many of the concepts central to modernist sculpture, including 'truth to material', direct carving, and inspiration from so-called primitive art, all of which became central to twentieth-century practice.