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marble statue of a woman holding a baby and three childrena statue of a woman sitting on a stool in a rooma statue of a woman holding a child on a stoola statue of a woman holding a baby on a stoolstatue of a woman sitting on a stool with a group of babies
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5 - Lucienne GILLET-DUVAL (1883–1962).
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Estimate €5,000 - €6,000
Sale commission
Description
Lucienne GILLET-DUVAL (1883–1962). Family or The Adoration of the Little Shepherds, 1910 Plaster sculpture H. 75 x W. 93 x D. 60 cm A few minor imperfections and chips, dust and soiling Provenance: the artist’s studio in Voutenay-sur-Cure; subsequently passed down through the family; remained on the property after the house was sold in 1979; then a private collection Exhibited: 1910 Salon of the Société nationale des beaux-arts, entry no. 1823. Included is a low wooden sculptor’s stool, H. 55 cm This large plaster group depicts a mother and three children gathered around a newborn in an intimate and deeply tender composition. Its dating to 1910 coincides with two births within the artist’s immediate family circle: that of his niece Christine Lambert (1909), daughter of his sister Henriette, and that of his own daughter, Marie Alice Duval, born in 1910, just a few months after her marriage. The suggestion that this scene of motherhood—halfway between a religious pastoral subject and a disguised family portrait—has autobiographical origins is consistent with the way in which Gillet always drew her subjects from her immediate circle, as well as with the date. In 1910, the year in which she gave birth to her first child and completed this group paying homage to motherhood and family, Lucienne was living in Saumur, most likely with her sister and brother-in-law Georges Lambert, a banker in the same town. The work caught the attention of several critics at the 1910 Salon. *La Gazette de France* praised ‘a charming group by Mrs Gillet-Duval, *The Adoration of the Little Shepherds*’. *Le Figaro* of 14 April 1910 listed it amongst the Salon’s remarkable ‘figurines’, alongside those by Madame de Frumerie; *L’Autorité*, in the same issue, noted: ‘… we shall also see Madame Lucienne Gillet-Duval’s *The Adoration of the Shepherds* and Madame de Frumerie’s *Cicadas*… ” It was also in this same year that her career was officially recognised. The newspaper *Le Temps* of 7 June 1910 announced her election as an associate member of the Société nationale des beaux-arts, alongside Léon-Ernest Drivier, Raphaël Schwartz, Yvonne Serruys, Paul Vannier, Ernest Friedrich Wield, Robert Wlérick and Libero Andreotti — a collective induction that places Gillet amongst a generation of sculptors then at the height of their careers. A deposit of 10 per cent of the low estimate will be required for each lot in this sale. Please contact our office.
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About the sale CLAUDEL, GILLET-DUVAL and a few abstract works
Auction location
Auction time 09/20/2026 at 3:00 PM
Ref. : 26341 - 5
Lot description modified on 08/25/2026 at 3:03 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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