List of works by Alexandre Falguière
Winning this prestigious prize not only gave him a welcome bursary and access to further funds, but allowed him to travel to and study in Rome and whilst there he executed several pieces.
[clarification needed] When he returned to Paris from Rome in 1867, his work was already well known and highly regarded and he sealed this with his Salon submission "Tracisius".
By the end of his life Falguière was running five studios and had many pupils including Idrac, Injalbert, Marqueste, Théodore-Rivière and Antonin Mercié.
[2][3] Falguière then travelled to Rome and at the villa Médicis there became a friend of fellow French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.
He spent time in Tuscany and there discovered the works of the Florentine renaissance and became so inspired that together with fellow sculptors Paul Dubois and Henri Chapu he formed the group which called itself the "Néo-Florentins"[8] The Falguière works held by the Comédie Française are- Bizet had been a close friend of Falguière who loved music and loved to sing.
Until 1891 the work was held in the collection of the Vicomtesse Thérèse de Clairval, née Morizot and was then presented as a gift to the French nation.
[27] A marble version was shown at the Salon in 1896 and at the 1902 Falguière retrospective[28] Thought to date to around 1895, this bronze bust of Léon Gambetta was cast by Thiébaut.
A marble version is in the Palais du Sénat in Paris and there are of course the full scale monuments to Gambetta in Cahors and Saïgon.
[30] This work in marble is thought to date to 1879 when it was shown at the Salon de la Société des artistes français.
[31] Falguière executed this work depicting Apollon riding on Pégase between 1880 and 1897 and the Musée d'Orsay hold the plaster model.
The model was made for a secret competition in 1880 for designs for the proposed monument to Victor Hugo in Paris, a commission which went to Barrias.
[33] "à / [Léon] Gambetta / né à Cahors / le 2 avril 1838""Français / Élevez vos âmes et vos résolutions à la / hauteur des effroyables périls qui / fondent sur la patrie / il dépend encore de nous de lasser [sic] la / mauvaise fortune et de montrer à l'univers / ce qu'est un grand peuple qui ne veut / pas périr et dont le courage s'exalte au / sein même des catastrophes"The monument area was designed by architect Paul Pujol and the statue was cast in the foundry of the Thiébaut brothers.
The bronze shows De La Salle teaching a young child whilst a second pupil is deeply engrossed in reading a book.
Falguière's bas-reliefs recall de La Salle's generosity in giving his possessions to the poor and that he was honored with a visit from James II at his boarding school in Paris.
