Sophie Frémiet

In the aftermath of the second Bourbon Restoration in 1815, the Frémiet family, along with many other Bonapartists, left France for Brussels[1] (now Belgium, then part of the newly created United Kingdom of the Netherlands).

[1] In Brussels Sophie was a successful artist, receiving many commissions, including several for the former royal palace at Tervuren, lost in the fire that destroyed it.

She served as the model for the female figure representing the Genius of War her husband's frieze The Departure of the Volunteers (also known as La Marseillaise), which forms part of the Arc de Triomphe.

François Rude died in 1855, and Sophie devoted the rest of her life to exhibiting and publicising her husband's work.

Geiger, Monique, "Frémiet, Sophie" in E. Gubin, C. Jacques, V. Piette & J. Puissant (eds), Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIXe et XXe siècles.