LA STATUE DE FRANÇOIS 1ER ET SA SŒUR MARGUERITE

About

Eugène Guillaume – 1900

The sculpture is the work of Eugène Guillaume (1822–1905), who created it in 1900, the year it was exhibited at the Salon. The date ‘1905’ engraved on the plinth corresponds to the date on which the work was purchased by the State, which subsequently transferred it to the town of Luchon in 1951.

The theme of the work, the founding of the Collège de France in 1530 by François I and his sister Marguerite d’Angoulême, is linked to the sculptor’s career; he was a lecturer in aesthetics and art history there from 1882 until his death in 1905.