Adam Mickiewicz, Final-Sized Model (Mickiewicz, Adam - modèle à grandeur d'exécution, sur base)

In 1908, Bourdelle embarked on an ambitious project to create a monument to the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz in Paris. He already had a general idea in mind.  However, he had to wait 17 years for the Paris Municipal Council to approve the exceptional funding that was required for the casting and subsequent erecting of the monument. 
For 20 years, Bourdelle worked constantly on this commission from the Franco-Polish Committee. His first patron, the widow of historian Jules Michelet, had spoken to him at length about this patriot, with whom Bourdelle felt an affinity. “My search was not long: the Monument to Mickiewicz came to me like a flower at dawn.” There were three key themes: the poet, his main works, and the Polish nation. The final composition depicts the poet, standing addressing the crowd from the top of a column. A female figure, an allegory of the Polish Epic, adorns the column's shaft. The monument was originally designed for the Place Médicis near the Jardin du Luxembourg (Paris), but was inaugurated on the Place de l'Alma in 1929. It was later moved to Cours Albert-1er, where it still stands today. 

Colin Lemoine