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.<\/p>\n
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 Barb\u00e8s<\/em>, which took off from Montmartre with L\u00e9on Gambetta on board.<\/p>\n Bartholdi’s first project was rejected, as \u00ab\u00a0the balloon is not an artistic form \u00bb. 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 Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de Navigation A\u00e9rienne, 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 R\u00e9volte, opposite the Porte des Ternes. It sadly disappeared during the Occupation, when the bronzes were taken for their metal content in massive numbers.<\/p>\n All that remains of this monument is the model (H. 57.7 cm) in the Mus\u00e9e de l’Air et de l’Espace at Le Bourget (Inv. 11012) and a bronze and onyx in the Mus\u00e9e 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monument to the Airships of the Siege of Paris (1879)<\/em> Literature\u00a0: Jacques Betz, Bartholdi<\/em>, 1954, page 247.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7724,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[567,260,269],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-7766","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-frederic-auguste-bartholdi-en-2","product_cat-galerie-faubourg-saint-honore-en","product_cat-sculptures-xixeme-en","description-off","first","instock","shipping-taxable","product-type-simple"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/7766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=7766"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=7766"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.galerienicolasbourriaud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=7766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric-Auguste BARTHOLDI\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
\nBronze with brown patina, signed \u201cA. Bartholdi\u201d.
\nSand cast without foundry mark
\nHeight: 27 \u00bd\u201d (70 cm) \u2013 Diameter of the base: 12 \u00bd\u201d (32 cm)
\nCirca 1900
\nInscription on the plaque: \u00ab\u00a0Monument des a\u00e9ronautes du si\u00e8ge de Paris \/ A. M. Alfred Brian \/ Souvenir de participation\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n