Marius Jean Antonin Mercié (French, 1845–1916)
Gloria Victis (Glory to the Vanquished), modeled ca. 1874, cast after 1879
Bronze, dark brown patina with gilt highlights, 36 5/8 x 21 x 16 in.
Signed on base right: A. MERCIE
Inscribed on base at front edge: GLORIA VICTIS
Foundry mark on back base: F. BARBEDIENNE, Fondeur Paris
Stamped on back base: REDUCTION MECANIQUE A. COLLAS BREVETE
Gift of Tracy and Laurel Pulvers
2014.3

Mercié executed the plaster model for this group while studying in Italy as a Prix de Rome boursier, and exhibited it at the 1874 Salon. The winged female figure carrying a wounded soldier holding a broken sword expressed the loss and sacrifice of the French at the hands of the Prussians in the 1870–71 war. The sculpture won critical and popular acclaim. In his review of the Salon that year, the critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary observed: “while monarchists quarrel over the debris of our battered fortunes…there exists a young sculptor who has undertaken to speak directly to our nation and to console our people who have suffered so much.” Mercié received a medal of honor; the city of Paris purchased the sculpture for 12,000 francs and the model was cast in bronze by Thiébaut et fils (Musée du Petit Palais, Paris). Replicas of it adorned monuments dedicated to those who served in the Franco-Prussian War in many towns and cities throughout France, and the Barbedienne Foundry provided bronze reproductions in different sizes.