In the Tuileries gardens, near the École du Louvre, there is a sculptural group by the French artist with Polish roots, Paul Landowski (1875-1961) entitled 'Sons of Cain'. First presented to the public in 1906, it brought the artist fame and recognition in Parisian artistic circles.

Landowski completed the composition in Italy in 1904. On 19 November 1904, he commissioned a foundry to make a bronze based on plaster. The cast was realised in 1906. In the same year the work was exhibited at the Salon, where it won a gold medal. The expressionistic, symbolic composition with a biblical theme aroused wide public interest. It was written: "M. Landowski closely follows the formula and technique of M. Augustin Rodin [...]' (E.Charles); 'The thought emanating from this colossal bronze is powerful. How poetic is the classical gesture of the shepherd looking at the horizon! [...] This is the work of a master" (Kaniowa-Kraszewska). The positive reception of the work prompted the French state to purchase the cast. The transaction was finalised on 9 May 1906.

In 1907, the sculpture was placed as a decoration in the Campo Santo Dujardin-Beaumetz square next to the Louvre. In 1938, the statue was removed from the public space - it did not return to its place until a decade later. Due to excavations at the Cour Napoléon in the mid-1980s, the statue was moved to the Tuileries gardens, where it remains today.

The group depicts three men of different ages, symbolising the stages in the development of human activity: a young man, the shepherd Jabal, with a shepherd's staff, raising his hand to his right temple; an old man, the poet Jubal, the ancestor of all musicians, with a cypher; and a man in the prime of life, the blacksmith Tubal-Kain, holding a small anvil. The figures were modelled on the inhabitants of Rome, whom the artist observed during a study stay in Italy.

The sculpture is signed and dated on the pedestal: "PAUL LANDOWSKI / ROME 1906". The plinth on the left bears the inscription: "LES FILS DE CAIN / CELUI QUI FUT PÈRE DE CEUX QUI LOGENT SOUS LES TENTES ET DES PASTEURS / CELUI QUI FUT PÈRE DE CEUX QUI CHANTENT ET DIRIGENT LES HOMMES PAR LEUR CHANT ET PAR LEUR PENSÉE / CELUI QUI FUT PÈRE DE CEUX QUI PRATIQUENT DES ARTS DU FEU ET QUI TRAVAILLENT AVEC LEURS MAINS" (SONS OF CAIN / HE WHO WAS THE FATHER OF TENT DWELLERS AND SHEPHERDS / HE WHO WAS THE FATHER OF THOSE WHO SING AND LEAD THE PEOPLE IN SONG AND THOUGHT / HE WHO WAS THE FATHER OF THOSE WHO PRACTISE THE ARTS OF FIRE AND WORK WITH THEIR HANDS).

Interestingly, in 1905, the central figure of the composition was presented in isolation at an exhibition in Paris of works by artists associated with the Rome branch of the Academie de France as 'Rhapsody', a fact that did not escape the public, provoking numerous comments (including by E. Charles).