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The First Mourning

1888 painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

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The First Mourning (in French Premier Deuil) is an oil painting on canvas created in 1888 by the French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Its dimensions are 203 by 252 centimetres (80 in × 99 in). It is in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This work depicts the moment after Adam and Eve just found the body of their son Abel, who was murdered by Cain. This is the first human death recorded in the Bible.

Bouguereau had suffered the loss of his second son shortly before painting this work.

Its original name is "Premier Deuil", in French, of which "The First Mourning" is a literal translation.

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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article The First Mourning, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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