Montauban 1870 - Monument exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts in 1902

The Monument to the Fallen, the Fighters and the Defenders of Tarn-et-Garonne 1870-1871 had just been cast in Brussels and was to be exhibited on the Place de la Bourse in Montauban, but this photo shows where it was first unveiled to the general public: at the Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In front of the Grand Palais, not far from Rodin's The Three Shades and one of his plaster heads of Beethoven, which is visible in the photograph, Bourdelle's work stood in prime position, befitting a master. Critics were intrigued to observe that this monument was intended less to glorify the nation, and rather to denounce the barbarity of conflict. As one informed critic suggested, “Perhaps the artist wanted to show that war is philosophically a thing of another age, primitive and savage?”

Colin Lemoine