Paul Dubois 1827-1905 La charite 19th century

bronze, dark brown patina, signed P. DUBOIS with the foundry mark F. BARBEDIENNE Fondeur Paris and with the Achille Collas Pastille.

Charité was one of four bronze allegorical seated figures executed by Dubois for the corners of the Monument to the Memory of General Juchault de Lamoricière (1806-65). The plaster model was exhibited at the Salon of 1876 alongside Courage Militaire 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. This sculptured personification of Charity as a mother protecting her naked children was an easily recognizable one to the 19th century viewer. Renaissance and contemporary interpretations of the subject were both displayed in European museums, and circulated in popular prints.