The Triumph of the Republic

The Triumph of the Republic is Jules Dalou’s monumental tribute to the French Republic, commissioned by the City of Paris after an 1878 competition. Although not selected among the three final projects for Place de la République, Dalou’s design won public attention and was ordered in bronze for Place de la Nation. He spent twenty years completing the work. The life-size painted plaster model was inaugurated in 1889 during the centenary celebrations of the French Revolution, and the final bronze version followed ten years later. Parts of the bronze were cast by Thiébaut Frères, while Dalou had wanted the whole group cast by the lost-wax process. In 1908, bronze sea monsters by Georges Gardet were added to the surrounding basin, later removed under Vichy.

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