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Minerve Enchères

129 - Jean-François SOITOUX (1816–1891).
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Estimate €600 - €800
Sale commission
Description
Jean-François SOITOUX (1816–1891). “La République”. Electrotyped with a reddish-brown patina. Signed on the square plinth. Bears the inscriptions “Liberty, Fraternity, French Constitution” on the cippus and “Democratic Republic 24 February 1848” on the headband in the hair, with an impression of the Republican Rooster. Bears the stamp “1st PRIZE, OFFICIAL STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC, SOITOUX.” (H.: 52 cm) This is a smaller version of the first version of *La République* created by Jean-François Soitoux in 1848 for a competition organised by the government of the Second Republic. The plaster model was exhibited at the 1850 Salon, but the coup d’état and the establishment of the Second Empire in December 1851 prevented 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. Bibliography: • Jacques Lethève, ‘Une statue malchanceuse: la République de Jean-François Soitoux’, Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1963. • Claire Barbillon, ‘Monumentalising the Republic in the urban space in 19th-century France: forms and types of a sculpted allegory, from Soitoux to the Morice brothers, between the Second and Third Republics’, in (ed. Olivier Christin, Servane Dargnies-de Vitry and François-René Martin, *Aesthetics and the Republic: An Anthropology of Images*, Lormont, Le Bord de l’eau, 2022, pp. 283, 295.
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About the sale CURIOSA AND COLLECTIONS #1
Auction location
Auction time 09/02/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits:
Minerve Auctions
See original version (French)
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