RARE MARBLE BUST OF MARIANNE, SYMBOL OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

letters ‘RF’ for ‘République Française’ (on the base) marble H. 46cm, W. 33 cm, D.19 cm probably between 1871 and 1879 The marble bust of Marianne is quite rare, as it was usually made in plaster. Marianne with a laurel crown and a star on the head instead of the ‘Phrygian cap’ is rare too. The French tradition of installing a bust of Marianne in town halls dates the early years of the Third Republic. But in 1871, to give the new regime a wiser image, President Adolphe Thiers banned the representation of the revolutionary bonnet (Phrygian cap), replacing it by a crown made up of ears of wheat, oak leaves, or olive branches, sometimes surmounted by the star, symbol of the Enlightenment. The Phrygian cap reappeared in 1879.