To all French public buildings, ministries, town halls, consulates, schools, etc., etc., word went out last week that they were about to receive new Mariannes. Officials prepared to sell or destroy their chipped and grimy plaster busts of the lady who for the past 44 years has represented La République.
The first bust of Marianne to attract public attention was that of Sculptor Jean-Baptiste Soitout, designed during the despotic provisional government of 1848. At that time France's ministry of the interior organized a competition for a figure to represent the Republic....
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