In this small sculptural bookend, a female figure twisting with grief crouches over a child. The subject reflects Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller’s interest in expressive and haunting themes. Though it appears to be metal, this sculpture is cast in plaster. As a working mother, Fuller produced many of her works in limited numbers in plaster when casting in bronze was too expensive. After receiving her degree at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Fuller lived in Paris, France, from 1899 to 1903. There, she studied with artists Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937) and Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), who encouraged her to focus on sculpture. Fuller became the first African American woman to receive a United States government commission, creating sculptural dioramas for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition in Virginia.