Jean-François Soitoux (1816-1891) The Republic Cira... Lot 13

Jean-François Soitoux (1816-1891) The Republic Cira 1850 Galvanoplasty with red-brown patina Signed "Soitoux Inscribed "Liberté, Fraternité, Constitution Française" on the headpiece and "Répu- blique Démocratique 24 février 1848" on the hairband. Republican Rooster Inscribed "1er PRIX, STATUE OFFI- CIELLE DE LA REPUBLIQUES, SOITOUX". H. 52 cm This is a reduction of the first version of the Republic executed by Jean-François Soitoux in 1848 for a competition launched by the government of the Second Republic. The plaster model was exhibited at the Salon of 1850, but the coup d'état and the establishment of the Second Empire in December 1851 compromised the purchase of the final work. Acquired by the State in 1879, it was erected on the forecourt of the Institut de France before being stored in the reserves, then reinstalled on the Quai Malaquais in 1992 to mark the bicentenary of the proclamation of the First Republic. Related literature: - Jacques Lethève, Une statue malchanceuse la République de Jean-François Soitoux, Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1963. - Claire Barbillon, Monumentaliser la Répu- blique dans l'espace urbain en France au xixe siècle : formes et types d'une allégorie sculp- tée, de Soitoux au Frères Morice, entre les IIe et IIIe républiques, in sous dir. Olivier Chris- tin, Servane Dargnies-de Vitry, François-René Martin, Esthétique et République, une anthro- pologie des images, Lormont, Le Bord de l'eau, 2022, pp. 283, 295.