L'Effroi ou L'amour Maternel (Fear or Motherly Love)

From 1877, Gustave Doré executed thirty eight sculptures which fully evoke the theatricality and expressionism of his two-dimensional works. The present group is a reduction of a larger plaster by Doré from 1878 and today in the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg. As Edouard Papet suggests, L’Effroi manifests both Doré’s penchant for improbable, gravity-defying forms and the strong influence of the work of his confrère, Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887), whose Messie completed one decade prior, is of very similar composition to the present work (marble, Paris, Eglise Saint Vincent de Paul) (see E. Papet, `Gustave Doré, sculpteur, Instabilités, pathos et joyeusetés’ in Gustave Doré : l’imaginaire au pouvoir, Exhibition catalogue, 18 February – 11 May 2014, Paris).