This small sculpture depicts a boy with a book. The calm genre character of the composition is emphasized by the child's natural pose . The combination of gilded bronze and carved ivory contrasts the sheen of the clothing with the lighter, smoother exposed parts of the body. The book turns the image of the child into a small narrative scene characteristic of 19th-century European cabinet sculpture. The work is signed by Charles Eloy Bailly, a French sculptor who repeatedly worked in the chryselephantine technique.

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