Style Other / Ref.15583

Émile HÉBERT, École de Filles (Girls School), 1871

This bronze bas-relief was created in 1871 based on a model by the sculptor Émile Hébert.

Émile Hébert (1828-1893) initially learned sculpture from his father, Pierre Hébert (1804-1869), and later from Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807-1852). He exhibited regularly at the Salons between 1849 and 1893, and his works were showcased at World’s Fairs, including the 1855 Paris Exposition and the 1873 Vienna Exposition.

The sculptor presents a surprising scene that functions as a humorous moral allegory. The bas-relief depicts the door of a girls’ school, forcibly opened (the bolt still protrudes from the lock) by a gaunt figure resembling Death. This figure holds a bow and arrows, likely taken from Cupid, who sits weeping, abandoned at the doorstep, as Death prepares to enter the building. The school is likened to a prison, as the girls are guarded behind bars. The moral of the scene is conveyed by an inscription: “AINSI SERONT TRAITES TOUTS [sic] RODEURS TEME/RAIRES” (“Thus will be treated all rash prowlers”). Cupid seems to symbolize young men who might attempt to loiter near the girls to court them, warned here of the fate that awaits them. The work is signed and dated along the lower edge.

The Detroit Institute of Arts holds a terracotta version of this piece. Both in spirit and style, it is characteristic of Émile Hébert’s work. The theme of young girls facing Death recalls his statue Et Toujours ! Et Jamais ! (“And Always! And Never!”), a memento mori or depiction of lovers reunited in death, where fear intertwines with desire. This similarly enigmatic and richly interpretable piece is housed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.