GUILLAUME GEEFS (1805-83)
Paul et Virginie 1851
Marble, gilt bronze | RCIN 41033
This sculpture was purchased by Prince Albert and presented to Queen Victoria at Christmas in 1851 and for her birthday in the following year he added the small gilt bronze of a crouching collie, perhaps Noble. The complete ensemble was placed in the Principal Corridor at Osborne.
The theme of innocent slumber was often evoked in memorials to children, but these babes are indeed only sleeping. The work is based on a best selling tale Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, first published on the eve of the French Revolution, of an aristocratic girl from mainland France and a peasant boy growing up together in the island paradise of Mauritius
Text from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love.
Provenance
The sculpture was purchased by Prince Albert for £202 5s from the Great Exhibition is 1851, and given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert, 24th December 1851. The pedestal base was given as a gift from Prince Albert to Queen Victoria 24th December 1852, and the gilt bronze collie was added by Prince Albert for her birthday, 24th May 1853.
[Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010, pg 458]