DAVID d'Angers
(b. 1788, Angers, d. 1856, Paris)

Condé

1817
Bronze, height 39 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

David returned from Rome to France in July 1816 and was at once commissioned to do the statue of Condé for the Pont de la Concorde. It had been ordered originally from his master Roland who, before his death, had just had the time to do the sketch. Executed rapidly, the model was exhibited at the 1817 Salon. The spirited, heroic attitude aroused the keenest admiration, also and above all the adoption of modern dress which David, breaking with tradition, had rendered with precision, without detracting from the overall effect.