Equestrian statue of Joan of Arc (Paris)

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Joan of Arc is a monumental bronze sculpture by French sculptor Paul Dubois. It depicts Joan of Arc both as a warrior and as a divinely inspired visionary.

The original plaster was presented at the Salon in 1889, on a commission by the city of Reims in 1887.[1] Dubois donated it in 1902 to the Musée Paul-Dubois-Alfred Boucher in Nogent-sur-Seine,[2] now an annex of the Musée Camille Claudel.[3] An earlier plaster version is at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.[4]

There are four casts of the sculpture in public settings:[5]

  • in front of Saint-Augustin Church in Paris (1895), cast by Edmond Gruet Jeune, purchased in 1895 by the Fine Arts Directorate of the French Government and placed on its current location in 1900;[6]
  • in front of Reims Cathedral (1896), cast by Pierre Bingen with finishings by Fonderie Thiébaut Frères, inaugurated by President Félix Faure on Bastille Day 1896;
  • in front of St Maurice's Church, Strasbourg (1897), cast by E. Gruet Jeune, initially intended for the Musée du Luxembourg; then placed in Strasbourg in front of the Palais du Rhin in 1922, damaged by German occupation forces during World War II, and placed in its current location in 1965;
  • on Meridian Hill Park (1922), reduced-scale cast by Rudier, inaugurated on January 6, 1922, in presence of President Warren G. Harding.[7][8]

References

  1. 1."Jeanne d'Arc". POP : la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine. 2012.
  2. 2."Statue équestre de Jeanne d'Arc". Musée Camille Claudel.
  3. 3."Dubois-Boucher annex". Musée Camille Claudel.
  4. 4."Jeanne d'Arc". Musée d'Orsay.
  5. 5.Elisabeth Lebon (2012). "Le monument équestre de Jeanne d'Arc ou les étranges rapports entre Pierre Bingen et Edmond Gruet". Le fondeur et le sculpteur: Technique du bronze et histoire de l'art. Traverses. Paris: Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art. ISBN 9782917902882.
  6. 6.Christel Sniter (2010). "La guerre des statues. La statuaire publique, un enjeu de violence symbolique : l'exemple des statues de Jeanne d'Arc à Paris entre 1870 et 1914". Sociétés & Représentations. 11 (1): 263–286. doi:10.3917/sr.011.0263.
  7. 7."Joan of Arc, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution Art Inventories Catalog.
  8. 8."Joan of Arc Statue (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 13 November 2024.