La statue de la Résistance

Falguière was a member of a National Guard company comprising many artists and intellectuals, among them Félix Philippoteaux.

Falguière, assisted by his comrades, erected the statue in a few hours, to symbolize French resistance to Prussia.

It became a tourist attraction, along with a less celebrated snow bust by Hippolyte Moulin near by.

Theodore de Banville wrote an ode and Félix Bracquemond made an etching published by Faustin Betbeder.

After the snow sculpture had melted, Falguière's attempts to recreate it in a more permanent medium were unsuccessful, lacking the original's spontaneity.