A FRENCH BRONZE GROUP ENTITLED 'LES PREMIERES FUNERAILLES'

"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.