Departure For Combat - Emile Laporte 1858-1907

Dimensions Height: 42 cm Depth: 22 cm Terrace: 14

In this last quarter of the 19th century, the theme of the Gaul is fashionable. Painting and sculpture of the second half took hold of it, and produced a plethora of works on this theme. But why such enthusiasm for “our ancestors the Gauls”? Interest in this combative, fierce, intrepid and resistant hero actually dates back to the end of the 18th century. He was aroused by the curiosity developed around the excavations of the supposed site of Alésia, which had been ordered by Napoleon III, at Alise-Sainte-Reine, in Burgundy. The opening of the National Archeology Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in 1867, where all the finds made there are exhibited, anchors the figure of the Gaul in the collective imagination, and the vision of national history revolves around this common identity. Little by little, the physical type of the Gaul is determined, and is anchored in the minds, disseminated by sculpture, by painting, school textbooks after 1870. Émile LAPORTE therefore surfs on this public enthusiasm for the Gauls by producing several sculptures depicting them. These respond, in typically romantic attitudes revealing bravery and courage, to perfectly codified criteria: the winged helmet of the warrior reveals the indomitable barbarian; the bulging muscles of his arms which indicate his raw strength; his look, his outstretched index finger reveal his determination; his long and drooping mustache, the abundant and unruly hair designate the Gaul.

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