Enfants supportant une vasque, Marble sculpture in Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, France

Enfants supportant une vasque is a marble group of two children holding up a wide basin, set on a low stone base above a small pool in the Jardin du Luxembourg. The figures stand back to back, arms raised, and water spills from the basin rim into the pool below.

The marble group was seized during the Revolution from the collections of the princes of Condé at Chantilly and assigned to the Jardin du Luxembourg by a consular decree of 1802, when the former princely garden was being turned into a public space. It was placed among the statues that line the garden's walks.

The two children are shown kneeling to lift the basin, their arms raised and hands pressed under the rim; visitors can compare the carved fingers and the folds of cloth. The basin still holds water and feeds a small pool, so families stop here and children lean over the edge to watch the trickle fall.

The work sits in an open part of the garden with firm ground around it, so people with reduced mobility can approach without difficulty. Morning and late afternoon light tends to soften the marble surface, and weekdays are usually quieter than weekends.

The sculpture is one of the marble pieces transferred from Chantilly to a state collection in 1802, so it entered the Jardin du Luxembourg as part of a public art programme rather than being carved for the garden. Look at the base and the drapery: no signature appears on either.