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2 unusual facts about Auguste Arnaud


Auguste Arnaud

Having failed to win an 1858 competition for a commission to create a statue of king Don Pedro II of Portugal, and affected by the failure of his Vénus aux cheveux d'or (Golden-haired Venus) at the Salon of 1863 despite its purchase by Napoleon III, Arnaud fell little by little into madness.

He conceived the tympanum and 35 statues relating to the life of the Virgin for Sées's cathedral in 1852 and, for his birthplace of La Rochelle, he designed a monument to M. Fleuriau de Bellevue (bust and bas-relief in bronze) in 1853.



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