Mother and Child, (sculpture).

Mother and Child, (sculpture).

Straus, Lenore Thomas, sculptor.

Mother and Child, (sculpture).

Commissioned May 1937. Installed Nov. 1939. Dedicated 1987.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: Indiana limestone; Base: concrete, painted.

Sculpture: approx. 13 x 5 x 5 ft.; Base: approx. 4 x 6 x 6 ft.

(On plaque on front of base:) Mother and Child/By Lenore Thomas/WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION/INDIANA LIMESTONE/PLAQUE DONATED BY THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF GREENBELT.

Carved from three 4 ft. blocks of limestone is a sculpture portraying a mother giving her child a drink from a cup of water. The woman kneels on her proper left knee, her child standing next to her. The mother holds a cup to the child's mouth with her proper left hand, and the child places both of its hands around the cup. The sculpture is mounted on a square concrete base, which originally contained a drinking fountain.

Figure group -- Family -- Mother & Child

Recreation -- Leisure -- Eating & Drinking

Outdoor Sculpture -- Maryland -- Greenbelt

Administered by City of Greenbelt, Greenbelt, Maryland

Located Roosevelt Center Mall, 100 Center Way, Greenbelt, Maryland

The sculpture was created under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The community of Greenbelt was a planned community built during the Roosevelt administration. IAS files contain excerpts from "Greenbelt - History of a New Town, 1937-1987," pg. 79, 144, 225, which notes that the sculpture is installed on Greenbelt's center mall which was named Roosevelt Center Mall in 1982. The image in "Greenbelt - History of a New Town" shows the sculpture as it looked in 1942 when a drinking fountain was on the left side of the base.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Maryland survey, 1994.

SOS Assessment Award, 1998.

Inventory staff, 2000.

"Greenbelt - History of a New Town, 1937-1987," pg. 144.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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