Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).
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The above is in reference to two original studies from the collection of Bert Van Bork, both acquired by him directly from the sculptor:
Prometheus Strangling the Vulture; 1936, Paris
mixed media on paper, signed at upper left
23 7/8 x 18 1/8 inches
$7500
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Prometheus Strangling the Vulture, 1944 cast 1953
Bronze, Collection Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Lipchitz created bronze casts of this work in varying sizes after a large, 52 inch high work was originally exhibited in New York at the Buchholz Gallery. The original plaster, Mère et enfant I, is owned by the Tate in London. Earlier in his career Lipchitz participated in the Cubist movement, adapting the spatial ambiguities of pictorial Cubism into three-dimensional language. Mother and Child shows his later interest in humanist themes.
In 1951 Lipchitz described his inspriation for this subject as the birth of his first child in October 1948: "After the Miracle and Sacrifice series, which were very different from almost anything I had ever done before, reflecting a spirit of anger and even pessimism, my mood changed dramatically as a result of the birth of my daughter, Lolya. It was a fantastic experience at the age of fifty-nine finally to have my own child, particularly a daughter, which is what I wanted, partially because I wanted her to have my mother's name. The result in my sculpture was a series of extremely lyrical works on the theme of the mother and child. These have the curvilinear movement in-the-round of the dancers of the earlier 1940s, but the mood is now much more tender and obviously maternal."
The above is in reference to Study for Mother and Child:
1949 mixed media on paper, signed upper right
16 3/4 x 13 5/8 inches
$6500
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Study for Mother and Child opposite photo of
Lipchitz at work on the sculpture.
Spread from Jacques Lipchitz: The Artist at Work,
by Bert Van Bork, Crown Publishers, NY, 1966