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| Ruffier's busts of Bara and Viala - copies on display at the Musée de la Révolution française, Vizille. |
As Jean-Clément Martin has emphasised, the young heroes of the Republic were lost to view for much of the 19th century. The public cult of Bara and Viala disappeared abruptly from daily life after 10 Thermidor: Viala was openly discredited in the Convention, whilst Bara was simply forgotten along with other Republicans engaged in the War in the Vendée. There was also little artistic interest. David's Bara languished in his studio, politically tainted and, in any case, too beautiful and disturbing for a martial age. David d'Angers's Bara, sculpted in 1838, was generally admired, but was regarded as part of a series of great figures of the past rather than an explicit commemoration of the Revolution (See J.-C.M, "Bara, de l'imaginaire révolutionnaire à la mémoire nationale", (1996), para 38)
This state of neglect was to be reversed only with the advent of the Third Republic. This was the great age of French public commemoration; indeed, the great left-wing historian Maurice Aguilhon coined the term "statuemanie" to describe the late 19th-century proliferation of monuments and memorials. The aim was both a revalidation of the Revolutionary legacy and a renewal of emphasis on heroes "of the people". The move to revitalise patriotic education, put in motion by the Ferry laws of 1881-82, placed the celebration of juvenile heroes at a particular premium.
1880 marked the start of the new era: the inauguration of 14th July as a national holiday "brought about the rehabilitation of the Revolution at a stroke" (J.-C.M para 39). Between 1879 and 1887 the Under-Secretary for the Arts, Edmond Turquet, mobilised artists favourable to the Republican cause. The centenary of the Revolution then provided a further focus for commemoration. Statues and monuments were erected throughout France, generally as a result of local initiatives and often to the accompaniment of elaborate theatrical ceremonies.
BARA
Among youthful heroes, only Bara profited more or less unambiguously from the new climate - he was to feature standardly in French educational manuals right up until the 1960s.
His status was reinforced by an outpouring of literary and artistic works. The critic Louis Énault was to complain the official salons were marred by two dozen painters and sculptors who serve up the same patriotic themes at every exhibition (nt35):
However resonant and loud the skin of the drum on which young Bara once beat his drumsticks, I doubt that the legendary drummer boy ever made as much noise during his life as he has since his death. After being allowed to sleep undisturbed for almost a century "under a cold flagstone", it has been decided suddenly to awaken him with a formidable fanfare that he himself would not have understood one bit.
There are two dozen painters and sculptors who have taken it into their fancy to make him fashionable: at each of our exhibitions since the start of our glorious Republic, they serve up his image again and again, in both paintings and sculptures. It is complete madness. This lad, who died aged fifteen after a few successful skirmishes, might as well have won the Battle of Austerlitz or Marengo to judge from the rush to immortalise his features, more or less authentic, for the benefit of posterity.
Louis Énault , Paris-Salon 1883
A biographical dictionary of 1895 lists some of the more prominent offerings recently dedicated to his memory in the 1870s and '80s:
In 1870 a poem by P. Casano recalling the sad and glorious destiny of the "sublime child"; in 1873 a song dedicated to him; in 1874 a terracotta statue, a choir piece and poems; in 1880 the canvas by Moreau-Vauthier; in 1881 statues by Albert-Lefeuvre and Félix Martin, two busts, more poems, a drama, followed in 1882/83 by two large canvases (by Henner and Weerts).
F. Cossonet, Recherches historiques sur Palaiseau (1895), p.97-101.
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| Statue by the deaf artist Félix Martin, exhibited at the Salon of 1881 See Nicholas Mirzoeff, Silent poetry (2019) p.183 (on Google Books) |
Even so, the importance of national sponsorship should not be over-estimated. We learn from an unpublished contemporary document that there were 220 politically-themed state commissions for artworks between 1880 and 1890, 90 of which concerned the Revolution. Of these only four had Bara as their subject - the bronze statue by Albert-Lefeuvre erected in Bara's birthplace, Palaiseau; busts by Ruffier and Gustave Gaudran, and the grandiose historical painting by Jean-Joseph Weerts, exhibited in 1883.
See Musée Calvet, Mort de Bara (Exhibition catalogue, 1989), p.116. [On GoogleBooks in "snippet view" - you have to squint!]
1. The monument in Palaiseau
Although state support was later forthcoming, the initial impetus for the commemoration of Bara was local. Republicans in Palaiseau, twenty kilometres south of Paris, began to revive the his memory at an early date. A committee, set up with the view to a public monument, met for the first time in 1876. In July 1879, on the centenary of Bara's birth, the municipality officially launched the project, with a vote 500 francs, the bulk of the funds to be raised by public subscription. When, nearly a year later, only 49 francs had been raised, the Ministry of Beaux-Arts agreed to fund the statue, the bronze for which cost 1800 francs.
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| Reduced copy of the bronze by Albert-Lefeuvre, dated 1895. Musée de Cholet. |
The young volunteer, fatally struck, is about to fall. Caught by the sculptor in a moment of unstable balance, the adolescent lets fall a drumstick from his fingers. This is the only accessory which the artist, as a man of taste, has allowed himself to add to the figure of Barra. We must be grateful to him for this restraint which others have not shown to profit in their depiction of this same person.
Henry Jouin, Sculpture aux salons de 1881, 1882, 1883 et à l'Exposition nationale de 1883 (1884), p.32.
The statue was inaugurated 11 September 1881, in a ceremony which lasted a mind-numbing hour-and-a half. The occasion was graced by a detachment of soldiers from 90th Regiment of the Line, and took place in the presence of a senator and three deputies, with participants including "pompiers, various fraternal and republican groups, three fanfares and thirty-four musical societies". General Jean Thibaudin, as representative of the Minister of War, gave a rousing patriotic speech. An triumphal arch was erected in front of the home of the last descendant of the Bara family. The recitation of poems and discourse continued for most of the day, terminating with the Bara's final cry: "Vive la Republique". The conservative newspaper, L'Univers was not impressed: Bara was a horse thief and rascal, "a model of neither discipline nor honesty" (September 4, 1881 quoted Oakland, p.130)
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| From a copy of L'Univers Illustré 1881 [image currently on Amazon] |
In modern Palaiseau the statue, in the place de la Victoire, seems a little tucked away and beleaguered by traffic:
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| From Wikipedia - nice bus! |
In 1886 the military the Revolutionary French regiments were authorised by the Ministry of War to place statues of Bara and Viala in their salles d'honneur. The first busts were commissioned by the Ministry of Public Instruction from the sculptor Noël Ruffier for the Prytanée militaire at La Flèche. In July 1886 the Ministry of National Education ordered 100 copies of each bust for secondary schools and a further 100 for primary schools. There are a number of examples extant, including Ruffier's originals in La Flèche.
Musée Barrois: "Louis-Gustave Gaudran, Joseph Bara",
Also of note, outside the official commissions, are the Sèvres porcelain busts of Bara and Viala. The original terracotta models were created by Jean-Nicolas Alexandre Brachard in 1794 but the biscuit versions did not go into production until the late 19th-century. In the early years of the 20th century the Sèvres manufactory also produced a version of the Albert-Lefeuvre statue.
1877 Example on ProAntic
3. The painting by Weerts
Jean-Joseph Weerts's painting La Mort de Bara was commissioned by the state in 1880, and adorned the Élysée Palace during the Universal Exposition of 1889. The huge canvas (350 cm x 250 cm) was exhibited at the Salon of 1883, where it was well-received by the critics, though inevitably less so by Royalist journalists.
Revue de la Révolution June 1883, p.497-505.
There is, of course, no doubt that the commission was a political statement: Weerts was subsequently awarded the Légion d'honneur for his work. 500,000 copies were produced by photogravure to be sent to all schools in the State to assure the edification of children, and the painting long provided the stereotype "image d'Epinal".
After the Exposition universelle, the painting was placed on public view at the Musée du Luxembourg until 1926. After a long sejourn in Colmar, it was transferred to Palaiseau in 1979 for the bicentenary of Bara's birth in 1979 before finding a permanent home in 1986 in the Musée d'Orsay (below).
VIALA
Apart from contexts where he was coupled with Bara, Viala received comparatively little attention. A move in the 1880s to commemorate him in his native Avignon, was blocked or fell by the wayside, through lack of funds. Viala's biographer, Victorin Laval, has the following account:
In June 1888 le Progrès in Avignon nominated a commission to erect a monument to Viala to mark the centenary celebrations. The first meeting of the commission took place in the town hall on 18th July. Three delegates from the town's republican circles were present. On 29th July M. Octave Baze presented a report on the ways and means of achieving the end. A bronze bust was to be erected on the square Saint-Martial and solemnly inaugurated in July 1900. It was to be financed by public subscriptions and by funding from the State and local government. It is not known why the project was subsequently abandoned.
In Mémoires de l’Académie du Vaucluse (1903), p.139 nt.
J.-C. M gives the name of the proposed sculptor as Ferrier, but I can find no further details.
The Vaucluse preferred instead to commemorate another boy hero, André Estienne, the "drummer boy of Arcole", whose statue was erected in the village of Cadenet in 1894.
By an odd quirk of fate, the only public statue of Viala ended up literally a thousand kilometres from Avignon, in Boulogne-sur-Mer!
A well-regarded sculptor in his day, Allier exhibited at the Salons between 1822 and 1835, then served as a deputy under the July monarchy, before resuming his artistic career in 1851. He was responsible for a number of prestigious but rigidly conventional public monuments, including the statue of Eloquence in the Chamber of Deputies. The Viala was cast in 1866 and exhibited at the Salon in that year, but the model is said to date from as early as 1822. It is a striking work. The representation of Viala as a naked ephebe, together with his tortured pose, give the monument an oddly modern feel.
The sculpture was left to the State by the sculptor's daughter in 1893 and subsequently deposited by the Louvre in the museum in Boulogne (why Boulogne particularly, I'm not sure), In 1993, as part of the bicentennial celebrations, it was found a discreet public site on the place Gustave-Charpentier.
Let's hope the hero of the Durance is still safe....
THE TAMBOUR STROH
Despite the lack of a coherent historical narrative of his life, the memory of the drummer boy Stroh/Strauh also began to be revived in the late 1880s. Émile Blémont alluded to him notably in long patriotic narrative poem celebrating the victory at Wattignies, published in 1888. The poet explicitly deplored the lack of a monument:
Pauvre petit tambour ! Trahi par sa victoire,
Il gît, les doigts crispés sur la baguette noire,
Lui, tout à l'heure encor si vaillant et si beau,
Avec son pantalon rayé comme un drapeau.
Frère obscur de Bara, martyr que la mort frustre
Hélas ! du laurier d'or, il devrait être illustre
On l'a bien retrouvé plus tard, sous une croix,
Dans une fosse avec sept grenadiers hongrois;
Mais Paris, pour qui l'art éternise l'exemple,
N'a pas mis son profil sur le fronton d'un temple;
Son nom n'est pas inscrit au coin d'un seul faubourg,
Il est mort tout entier. Pauvre petit tambour !
Poor little drummer boy! Betrayed by his victory/ He lies, his fingers stiffened round his black drumstick/ He who so recently appeared brave and handsome/ With his trousers striped like a flag/ Obscure brother of Bara, martyr frustrated by death/ Alas! He should have been crowned with golden laurels./ He was found later, under a cross/ In a ditch with seven Hungarian grenadiers; / But Paris, for whom art eternalises example/ Had not placed his example on the pediment of a temple / His name was not inscribed on a single suburban corner/ He had died entirely. Poor little drummer boy!
The centenary of the Battle of Wattignies provided an opportunity to rectify this neglect. On 31st October 1892 the Conseil Municipal in Paris voted that the name "Sthrau" should be given to one of the new roads under construction in the 13th arrondissement.
Stroh then featured prominently on the commemorative monument by Léon Fagel, which was erected at Maubeuge in 1893.
Envisaged as early as 1884, this was a high-profile project. As Jean-Marie Oudoire notes in his article on the monument, it was also very much a regional initiative. Commemoration of the Revolution was widely embraced in le Nord/Pas de Calais, an area of strong liberal allegiance and all the communes of the Nord participated in the fundraising, which was supplemented by a grant from the departmental Conseil Général and the gift of bronze from the state. President Sadi-Carnot was invited to lay the first stone.
The monument was originally erected on the place d'Armes, now the place de Wattignies-la-Victoire. Having miraculously survived two World Wars, it was reerected in 1951 on the place Vauban, near the porte de Mons.
Iconographically, the monument emphasises popular participation in the war effort. The composition is surmounted by the figure of a jubilant volunteer, whilst the group of three leaders Duquesnoy, Carnot, Jourdain, on one side are balanced, on the reverse of the pyramid, by the Tambour Stroh, reclining in death but still heroically beating his drum.
The figure of Stroh was reproduced and disseminated. A full-size plaster replica was ordered from the sculptor to be erected in the departmental Prefecture and in 1896 thirty reduced models were ordered for distribution to the schools of the Department - a terra cotta in the municipal museum at Mauberge perhaps represents an example. (see Oudoire, p.202). There is also a full-size plaster model in Lille:
In 1905, a second statue by Léon Fagel, was commissioned for Avesnes-sur-Helpe, a commune about 10 kilometres south of Dourlers where Stroh had been killed. According to Jean-Clément Martin, the project "had not been without difficulty": Dourlers was the "fief of a maire-châtelain", the marquis de Nédonchel, who had refused point blank to allow a monument to the glory of the Revolutionary Republic. Eventually the statue had to be sited in Avesnes, where it was inaugurated with some pomp on 3rd September in the presence of the Minister of War Bertaux. (See Martin, 1996, para.39)
Account of the inauguration, from Le Petit Parisien, 3rd September 1905:
Bulletin of the Association Racines et Patrimoine en Avesnois. No 14, March 2014.
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| Souvenirs of the inauguration of the monument at Avesnes, by chance currently for sale on Rakuten. |
The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Valenciennes holds Fagel's preliminary model for the monument, which was gifted by his widow in 1913.
Here is a translation of the write-up on their website.
This history has been much debated; during the battles of the 15th and 16th October 1793, which ended the blockade of Maubeuge, a young drummer of 14 years, called Stroh and a native of Alsace, was killed by Hungarian grenadiers when he advanced imprudently into the centre of Dourlers. The only report of this action is from an eyewitness who was hiding at that moment in his attic and looking out from the window. At the beginning of this century, it was not so very important to establish whether all the facts were absolutely true, or even whether Stroh was indeed the young drummer boy in question. The priority was to establish a continuity of youthful heroism between the First and Third Republics, in the face of our German neighbours who had recently imposed humiliation by taking Alsace and Lorraine. In this respect, the little Alsatian Stroh, bravely dying under enemy fire, furnished a providential subject for a monument. Fagel, who had just triumphed at Maubeuge... had decided to modify his statue. He created a compromise between the triumphant soldier and the recumbent Stroh of the "Monument de Wattignies". There could be no question in Avesnes of a drummer boy who lay dying, since the aim was to inspire youth with an example of patriotic enthusiasm. Stroh was cited in the civic instruction manuals. The children of the state schools of the department were each asked to contribute up to 10 sous towards the subscription ...The Monument, a project which generated a great deal of argument, was inaugurated on 6th September 1905 - in a "fine flight of patriotism" as the formula goes.
By Jean-Claude Poinsignon (writing in 1993).
The Petit tambour in Avesnes and the Wattignies monument have both been recently restored. Since I have already posted a video from Avesnes, here is the reinauguration ceremony which took place at Mauberge last October:
The Voix du Nord informs us that "Maubeuge remains faithful to the First Republic" (article of 15.10.2023)
THE DRUMMER OF ARCOLE
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| Image from Wikipedia |
The commemoration of André Estienne, the "drummer boy of Arcole" in his native Cadenet has been the subject of a detailed local study, carried out by Jacques Caroux of the CNRS (see References for details).
Cadenet is a tiny commune: in 1894 it boasted just over 2,500 inhabitants, and the population is not much larger today. The local economy is traditionally founded on the artisanal industry of basket-weaving. The Vaucluse had been an area of radical Revolutionary zeal, and Cadenet remained politically left-wing in sympathy during the Third Republic. In the early 1890s its central space was reconfigured - literally, with a new town square, and symbolically, through rediscovery of its hero.
A first attempt to erect a monument to the "brave Estienne" was made under the Second Empire in 1862. The Municipal Council of Cadenet, planned to name the planned railway line from Paris the "cours du Tambour d'Arcole" and erect a statue which could be seen from passing trains (Caroux, 1999, p.97-99) This initiative stalled; Maurice Aguilhon suggests that, despite Estienne's subsequent career in the Imperial army, his heroism at Arcole turned too much to the credit of the Republic.(Aguilhon, note 66)
By the 1890s, in contrast, commemoration of the patriotism of Year IV become part of the radical political agenda in the Vaucluse. In 1892 a committee in Cadenet, presided over by the mayor André Astic, commissioned a statue of Estienne by the local sculptor, Jean-Barnabé Amy and a subscription was launched to "contribute to the glorification of a hero of the people". The prime movers included the poet Frédéric Mistral, author of a famous poem on the "Tambour d'Arcole" and founder member of the Félibrige, an association founded in 1854 to promote Provençal literature and culture. The inauguration of the statue on 11th August 1894 was a characteristically elaborate, high profile affair, attended by a government delegation of eleven, including three ministers.
Jacques Caroux emphasises the value of local communities, "petites patries", in the formation of 19th and 20th century Republican culture. In Cadenet the villagers expressed their loyalties during the Occupation by protecting their monument. In 1940, as German forces approached, the statue was dismantled and in 1943 the efforts of the local Resistance saved it from being melted down. It was returned to its original position in the Place du Tambour d'Arcole in 1945.
Nowadays, the monument remains closely linked to the spirit of wartime remembrance. In 2015 Cadenet celebrated the 70th anniversary of the statue's "restoration" as an occasion to honour local Resistance fighters, particularly their chief Claude Roux, who was shot by the Nazis in 1944 and on whose farm the statue had been hidden.
References
Entries on e-monumen.net and A nos grands hommes
Maurice Aguilhon, "La "statuomanie" et l'histoire", Ethnologie française, t.8(2/3), p.145-172.
Jean-Clément Martin, "Bara, de l'imaginaire révolutionnaire à la mémoire nationale". In : Révolution et Contre-Révolution en France de 1789 à 1989 (1996)
Gareth Oakland, "Resisting the Republic: the Politics of Commemoration in the Vendée, 1870-1918. [London University Unpublished PhD thesis, January 2020]
Jean-Marie Oudoire, "La Première République en place publique : l'exemple du Monument commémoratif de Wattignies-la-Victoire à Maubeuge",Revue du Nord, 1993 no.299, p.193-204.
Jacques Caroux, "L 'épopée nationale, la statuaire et la petite patrie" - CNRS Report, 1999 [pdf.]
____, "Refondation de l'unité symbolique d'un village provençal au XIXe siècle"
Le Monde alpin et rhodanien. Revue régionale d’ethnologie, 2004, 32-3-4 p. 95-107
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