Lot Essay
Lami cites Jeune mère jouant avec son enfant among Leroux's most important works, which includes an extensive register of civil and private commissions throughout Paris and its environs. The group was an obvious favorite with the artist himself and Leroux exhibited the subject in a number of media over the course of seven years. First commissioned in 1871 for a member of the French ministre, the group debuted in plaster at the 1872 Salon and was subsequently exhibited in marble at both the 1874 Salon and 1878 Exposition Universelle (S. Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'Ecole Franaise au dix-neuvième siècle, Paris, 1914, Vol. III, p. 332).