Large Bronze Virgin and Child Bronze by Albert Roze, 1890s

Large bronze with golden patina by Albert Roze cast Barbedienne, the Virgin and Child called Albert's Virgin at the beginning of the 20th century. This 80 cm series is in limited and numbered editions, this copy is number 15 (I do not know the total number of copies).
Marked on the base "Golden Madonna of the Basilica of Albert" as well as "Bombarded by the Germans on January 17, 1915" signed Albt Roze on the sphere. On the base is also marked F.Barbedienne Fondeur and 15th proof. This rare piece is almost impossible to find in this size of 80 cm.

Albert Dominique Roze, born in Amiens in 1861 and died in 1952, student of Dumont then of Bonnassieux. He stayed in Rome from 1891 to 1893. Director of the School of Fine Arts in Amiens. Fruitful career marked by a creation of religious inspiration including the Golden Virgin of the Basilica of Albert in the Somme. Albert Roze will also create busts of Liszt and Lamarck and monuments of Figuet, Frédéric Petit, Jules Verne (1907) and Parmentier. After the Great War, memorials were commissioned to him in the Somme.
The Virgin of Albert is at the top of the Basilica of Notre Dame de Brébières in Albert; inspired by Eugène Delaplanche's Virgin of the Sheep, it is one of Albert Roze's most beautiful creations. Placed on the dome at a height of 70 meters, in 1897, the Virgin raised her child whose arms formed a cross. The gilded copper statue is 6m20 high. Hit at its base in 1915, it remained in the horizontal position until the end of the war. After the war, Albert Roze redid all his drawings and the new Virgin found her place at the top of the rebuilt basilica in 1925.

Through this work, Albert Roze testified to the deep faith that drives him. The Blessed Virgin presents her Child to the world, but also offers him to humanity until the sacrifice of the Cross. The child Jesus looks Humanity in the face by opening his arms in a gesture of love but also by placing them on the Cross like the one on which he will be crucified. The Virgin, very beautiful, is in the background. All in humility, she lowers her eyes to show that the main subject is her Son whom she holds out at arm's length. She seems to cry, as if conscious of the sacrifice she will offer in losing her Son for the salvation of Humanity.