A FRENCH BRONZE GROUP OF A MOTHER AND CHILDREN, ENTITLED 'LA CHARITÉ'

This reduction cast, listed in the Barbedienne catalogue as Aux 3 dixièmes, is a smaller version of one of the four bronze allegorical seated figures executed by Dubois for the corners of the Monument to the Memory of General Juchault de Lamoricire (1806-65). The plaster model was exhibited at the Salon in 1876 alongside Military Courage (nos. 3232 and 3233 respectively) and the completed monument was displayed at the Exposition Universelle in 1878 prior to its installation in the transept of Nantes Cathedral the following year. Engravings of Charitéi in particular appeared in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, The Magazine of Art and L'Art, the latter included the praise of Eugène Vroné who claimed that 'It is no small thing to remake, without falling into pastiche, those moral allegories which abound and sometimes overabound in the sculpture of all ages'. Charles Yériarte declared it 'a true source of joy for those who love art'.