The First Funeral
This sculpture depicts Adam and Eve carrying their son, Abel, who was killed by his brother Cain due to jealousy. The Bible makes no mention of a funeral. Later writers expanded this story that Adam and Eve were so shaken by Abel’s murder that they mourned his death for a hundred years.
Barrias was regarded as one of the greatest French sculptors in the classical style. He started his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1858 and in 1865 he won the Prix de Rome for study at the French Academy in Rome. Barrias was involved in the decoration of the Paris Opéra and the Hôtel de la Païva in the Champs-Élysées.
This is one of the most famous and poignant sculptures produced in 19th century France. Barrias exhibited it for the first time in plaster at the 1878 Paris Salon, where it won a Medal of Honour and was considered as ‘the highest manifestation of the feeling that sculpture can express’. The plaster original is now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon in France.
