Happy Mother

Happy Mother came to the Department of Health and Human Services in 1993 as a gift from the artist’s widow, Renee Nechin Gross. The sculpture portrays a reclining woman boosting her children into the air in an exuberant pose that is impossibly balanced. Chaim Gross relied on repeated angular forms to convey a sense of rhythm and dynamism in his work. Because of this, there is little that formally distinguishes the mother from her children aside from their size—the children appear to be miniature versions of their mother. Gross’ composition emphasizes the interconnectedness of the family, which was a subject the artist returned to often for inspiration.

Born in 1902 in what was then Austria (present-day Ukraine), Gross began pursuing art at the age of 14 and studied in Budapest and Vienna before moving to the United States. Once established in New York City, Gross attended the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the Art Students League and began to show his work in group exhibitions. Throughout the 1930s, Gross was active in the Works Progress Administration, teaching art and completing sculpture commissions for government buildings. In 1974, Gross’ work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Ten years later, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and continued sculpting until his death in 1991.