Moore’s series, spanning a number of years, of a girl studying at her desk reflected Moore’s pleasure at watching his only child, Mary, concentrating on her homework. Mary was born a few months after the Second World War ended in 1946. Moore was delighted by fatherhood and this coupled with dealing with the trauma of the War, created a new direction in his art which focused on family and human connection.

In ‘Girl Doing Homework’ Moore draws Mary alone, hard at work. There is a monumentality to her stature akin to the large scale public sculptures he was creating at this time. Moore was at the height of his power and fame during this period, following a large retrospective at Tate, London in 1968, the 1974 opening of The Henry Moore Centre at the Art Gallery of Ontario, an exhibition of his drawings while an official war artist at The Imperial War Museum in 1976 and the formation of the Henry Moore Foundation in 1977.