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Lot 176THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
A FRENCH BRONZE GROUP ENTITLED 'LES PREMIERES FUNERAILLES'
CAST BY THIÉBAUT FRÈRES FROM A MODEL BY LOUIS-ERNEST BARRIAS, LATE 19TH CENTURY
Closed27 September 2007
Price Realised
GBP 9,375
More Information
Specialist note
"The highest manifestation of the sentiments that sculpture can express", wrote Roger Ballu describing Barrias's plaster model of Les Premières Funerailles when it was exhibited at the Salon of 1878. The marble version was exhibited at the Salon five years later and again at the Exposition Universelle of 1889, where it was acquired by the city of Paris for the Hôtel de Ville. Aside of its biblical representation, that of Adam and Eve supporting their murdered son Abel, the group is allegorically symbolic of the countless young lives lost during the Franco-Prussian War.
Another Thiébaut cast of this model sold Christie's New York, 27 May 1993, lot 134 ($43,700).
Please see lot 59 for a note on Thiébaut.
Another Thiébaut cast of this model sold Christie's New York, 27 May 1993, lot 134 ($43,700).
Please see lot 59 for a note on Thiébaut.