Recumbent Effigy of Victor Noir

The bronze sculpture you see before you is the final work of the renowned sculptor Jules Dalou, commissioned to commemorate a man who became an unlikely martyr for the French Republic. Victor Noir was a twenty two year old journalist who was shot and killed in eighteen seventy by Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a cousin of the ruling Emperor Napoleon the Third. The killing occurred during a heated confrontation when Noir and a colleague were sent to the Prince’s home to deliver a challenge to a duel. The Prince avoided punishment for the act, sparking massive public outrage and violent anti-imperialist demonstrations that shook the foundations of the regime.