Helmet Head No. 1

This militaristic helmet is the first in a series of works made by Henry Moore shortly after the end of World War II. A British sculptor, Moore fought in the trenches in the World War I, an experience that may also have informed this piece. He himself compared his helmet heads to his sculptures of mother and child. "There is the relation of the big thing to the little thing," he explained, "and the protection idea." While a mother’s protection for her child is usually benevolent and nurturing, the protection offered by a helmet in battle is decidedly more ambiguous.