LA STATUE ISIS SE DÉVOILANT

About

André Allar – 1901

The statue in the round stands on a rectangular plinth.

The sculpture is the work of André Joseph Allar (1845–1926), winner of the Prix de Rome in 1869 and a member of the Société des artistes français, who signed his name on the plinth.According to Allar, “this figure symbolises at once the soul of the Earth, of Nature and of universal intelligence revealing itself to humankind”. The solemn seated pose is said to have been inspired by Jean-Léon Gérôme’s *Tanagra* (1890, Musée d’Orsay); it was criticised by Paul Leroy for being too theatrical and academic.

Acquired for 9,000 francs, it was initially placed on loan at the Musée du Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, in exchange for Barrias’s statue “Nature Revealing Herself to Science”, which was ultimately allocated to the Paris Faculty of Medicine. In 1942, it was removed from there as it was too bulky and returned to the art collection store. It remained there until 1949, when it was then allocated to the town of Luchon. Formerly situated near the railway station, the statue was cleaned in 2016 and has now taken the place in the casino grounds previously occupied by the statue *La Fatalité*, which was moved into the casino to ensure its preservation.

The work is known as “Isis Unveiling Herself”, but the plinth bears the title “Isis Unveiled”. There are two other versions of the work. The first, in plaster, is the original version, exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1893. The second is a marble statuette 97 cm high, exhibited at the 1923 Salon.