Et Toujours! Et Jamais!

Pierre Eugène Emile Hébert’s macabre bronze sculpture depicts a shrouded, skeletal figure who, after rising from the grave, has embraced a figure of a nude young woman whose supple flesh provides a stark contrast to his gaunt, angular limbs. The poetic title of the sculpture can be translated as “Forever and ever!” or “Always! Never!” This enigmatic title invites a variety of interpretations on the transience of life. The common title for this subject is Death and the Maiden. A more recent interpretation suggests that the sculpture is a meditation on the possibility of immortality. Another suggested by several of Hébert’s contemporaries is that the shrouded corpse is actually the young woman’s lover who has risen to claim her at the time of her own death.