ARMAND LE VÉEL - Bronze, cast iron from 1846: FLAG-BEARER OF THE 32nd INFANTRY HALF-BRIGADE, Revolution. 31167

ARMAND LE VÉEL - Bronze, cast iron from 1846: FLAG BEARER OF THE 32nd INFANTRY HALF-BRIGADE, Revolution. 31167

Brown patinated bronze. Height 80 cm, width 31.5 cm, depth 24.5 cm. Signed on the left plinth "A. LE VEEL / 1846", on the right plinth "Susse Pes".

France.
Second Republic.
Perfect condition.

BIOGRAPHY:
Armand Jules Le Véel, born on January 27, 1821 in Bricquebec and died on July 26, 1905 in Cherbourg, was a French sculptor.
Son of merchants, Armand Le Véel was the eldest of a modest family of 13 children. He started his classical studies at Valognes college in 1830, and then moved to Cherbourg, where he showed an interest in drawing. In 1837, his parents sent him to Rouen as a grocer's assistant and accountant, where he spent three years without developing a liking for commerce.
On December 14, 1840, he arrived in Paris to pursue his art, with no resources. He took on various jobs and produced products for the Susse House for making plaster statuettes that were in vogue at the time.
He met the sculptor Auguste Poitevin, a student of François Rude, who introduced him in 1845 to the master's workshop, from which he retained a late romantic inspiration. There, he worked alongside Emmanuel Frémiet and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. He created his first works, a series of six plaster statuettes depicting characters from French history, including a League member, a Huguenot, and a People's Representative with the Armies, known as Vox populi.
Enrolled on February 24, 1848 during the Revolution at the barricade of Rivoli Street in Paris, he was proclaimed a commander, receiving and then dismissing Odilon Barrot, before being among the first to enter the Tuileries Palace.
He resumed his creations in 1850, supported by an annual subsidy of 600 francs for three years from the General Council of Manche, which was doubled by the councilor of Canisy, Alexis Félix Sanson-Lavalesquerie. After this pension ended, the departmental assembly commissioned him to create a marble bust of Admiral de Tourville.
In 1852, the Cherbourg municipal council decided to erect a Monument to Napoleon in the form of an equestrian statue. Le Véel proposed a design in early 1853, which was completed on April 25, 1855. In the meantime, working in a workshop on the Île des Cygnes offered by the Direction of Fine Arts, he practiced equestrian sculpture with two Charlemagnes and a Napoleon in Italy.
A friend of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, he married Eugénie Feuchère in 1855, the daughter of the sculptor Jean-Jacques Feuchère.
On July 21, 1858, the Monument to Napoleon arrived by train for the visit of Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, whom Le Véel had met in 1852 when she was still Miss de Montijo and for whom he was to sculpt a bust. The imperial couple came for the inauguration of the Mantes-la-Jolie - Cherbourg railway line, the launching of the Ville de Nantes ship, and the launch of a new basin in the military port. However, the inauguration of the statue was not desired by Napoleon III, who was pursuing closer diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. As a result, the statue was relegated to the last day of the imperial visit, after the prominent guest, Queen Victoria, had already departed. Thus, what was meant to be Le Véel's crowning moment was quickly done away with, and the sculptor was not awarded the Legion of Honor, despite his hopes and those of Mayor Joseph Ludé.
Le Véel attributed this lack of recognition to his past as a revolutionary in 1848. However, he was decorated in 1863. It is more likely that his uncompromising attitude towards authority, such as being absent when the emperor visited his workshop or refusing to adjust his projects based on the comments of his patrons, did not help his relations with official circles and hindered his chances of receiving public commissions. Nevertheless, he received several commissions for plaster, bronze, and stone statues, especially in his home region. Among other works, he created a Tancrède de Hauteville in stone for Coutances Cathedral, and bronze statues of Joan of Arc, including the Monument to Joan of Arc at the former Orléans bishop's palace. This statue was melted down in 1941 under the Vichy regime; only the rear of the horse and the torso of Joan of Arc remain, preserved at Orléans City Hall. In 1870, he was one of eleven members of the commission, under the chairmanship of Gustave Courbet, tasked with saving art pieces from a Paris on the brink of being besieged by the Prussians, and he opposed the demolition of the Vendôme Column.
He retired in September 1882 in Cherbourg and stopped creating. After donating several works to the city, which took care of having them cast, he was appointed curator of the Thomas-Henry Museum and advocated for the collections to find shelter in a new dedicated building. On May 7, 1899, he attended the inauguration of the Monument to Joan of Arc that he had offered to the bishop's palace in Orléans.
Living on Rue du Maupas in Cherbourg, he passed away on July 26, 1905, and bequeathed his collection of artworks and antiques (tapestries, weapons, furniture, etc.) to the City of Cherbourg. They were exhibited for half a century in the west pavilion of the theater before being consolidated with his works at the Thomas-Henry Museum. Several of his works are also preserved at the Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts. He was buried in the Aiguillons cemetery in Cherbourg.