Monument aux morts

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

"A. Boucher created several monuments in the region, some of which have disappeared, such as the monument to the surgeon Ollier in Lyon due to the recovery of bronze during the last war or that to the aviator Pégoud, a war memorial of the commune of Montferrat in Isère. Two war memorials by Boucher were selected, that of La Tour du Pin and that of Aix-les-Bains. They are created using a technique invented by Boucher of cement including copper particles and which he models himself. He keeps the manufacturing secret and assures the communes of its absolute permanence, but in fact his creations have been very poorly preserved. One can thus assess his creations differently, either they testify to a particular technique that only protection as Historic Monuments will allow to document and attempt to restore, or one might say that it is too experimental and degraded, and one writes it off. The Camille Claudel museum in Nogent-sur-Seine, depositary of Boucher's work, was approached in order to pool knowledge on this technique and to benefit from the restoration experience of the registered monument in Nogent which is close to that of La Tour-du-Pin [since the holding of the commission, several analysis and restoration reports have thus been received]. The monument is located on the esplanade of the Champ de Mars, at the edge of the old town. Facing the square is depicted on the lower part of the pedestal The Sorrowful Mother or The Last Kiss, secularizing the iconography of the Pietà, the Poilu replacing Christ. The monument is surmounted by a figure of a Poilu draped in his greatcoat and recognizable by his helmet. On the reverse is depicted, helmeted and holding a sword, The Peaceful and Vigilant Mother or Armed Peace. Picture postcards published following the inauguration in 1921 allow one to see how the relief was originally and the modeling today lost. The monument indeed underwent a first restoration in dental cement in 1958 and also received a polychromy non-existent originally, as well as at Aix-les-Bains. The maquette is kept at the heritage house but has been whitewashed. The Poilu and the sorrowful mother are also present on the monument at Nogent. As is often the case with Boucher's commissions, it was a network of sociability that played a role in the commission, initiated by the mayor of the commune, Antonin Dubost, president of the Senate and friend of Boucher."