Description
Around a rising air balloon, Bartholdi assembles the City of Paris, in the guise of a grieving woman, and her children, who are dying of hunger and cold. She protects and guards them against an enemy she seems to be watching out for, while at the same time welcoming the carrier pigeons that flap their wings or land on the stele, faithful messengers bearing news for the provinces. A little above the group, a personification of defence bears the flag, that drapes and floats all around the aerostat.
The maquette for this monument was the subject of a competition launched by the City of Paris in 1879, to commemorate an episode of the capital’s history. The idea was to illustrate the heroic actions of French airships during the siege of Paris, from September 23, 1870 to January 28, 1871. Sixty-six balloons left the city, freeing the trapped citizens from the yoke of the enemy. The most famous of these was the Armand Barbès, which took off from Montmartre with Léon Gambetta on board.
Bartholdi’s first project was rejected, as « the balloon is not an artistic form ». In 1890, he proposed the same project with slight modifications, which this time met with enthusiasm from the organizers. It was presented at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in the section reserved for the Société de Navigation Aérienne, and finally inaugurated on January 28, 1906 with the release of 5,000 pigeons preceding a parade of delegations of 1870 veterans; 7 meters high, it stood on the rond-point de la Révolte, opposite the Porte des Ternes. It sadly disappeared during the Occupation, when the bronzes were taken for their metal content in massive numbers.
All that remains of this monument is the model (H. 57.7 cm) in the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace at Le Bourget (Inv. 11012) and a bronze and onyx in the Musée Bartholdi in Colmar, a reproduction of the original sketch. Our bronze is in fact a rare and moving testimony to this important page in the Conquest of the Air.
According to several period documents, Alfred Brian was a generous donor who supported the sciences, orphans, the arts…; before his death in 1915 following an accident, he certainly supported Bartholdi in the realization of our sculpture, as indicated by his name on the plaque.
