The Conscript Of 1814 - C. Theunissen 1834-1918

Signature On the side of the terrace. Material Bronze with black patina. Composed of several pieces, the bronze is complete.

Son of Pierre Ludovic Theunissen, born in 1834 in Malines, Belgium, and Henriette Sophie Pernaux, born in 1833, Corneuille Born in Anzin, a small town in the suburb of Valenciennes, on November 6, 1863, Corneille Theunissen, of Belgian origin by his father, a shoemaker (Pierre Ludovic, born in Malines), was brought up in the heart of the black country and spent his youth in the middle of the settlements and metallurgical factories from which he was often inspired thereafter, such as the monument to Fontaine, this minor who had invented the parachute of the mines, or his group of 1891 representing a Family of Minors during the strike for which he obtains at the Salon a third medal.

This work, of a broad and sincere invoice, which inspires a poignant emotion, is acquired by the State, and sent to the museum of Valenciennes. Trained at the Académie de Valenciennes, and more particularly by the eminent statuary and professor René Fache (1816-1891), he was received at the École des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, in July 1882, at the age of 19 years old.

There he followed the teaching of Jules Cavelier (1814-1894), and obtained a large number of medals, before winning the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1888, he was then 25 years old. At the 1914 Salon, he received a gold medal for his monumental statue, commissioned by the École Polytechnique, Le Conscrit. A hard worker and meticulous worker, Corneille Theunissen enjoys a well-deserved reputation. His monumental Parisian sculpture workshop is very active. And yet, in the aftermath of his death, which occurred following a flu attack on December 30, 1918, when he was only 55 years old, oblivion buried him just as quickly, like many of his colleagues in the world. 'elsewhere, the two world wars and their indescribable destruction having more than surely accelerated this trend. On July 8, 1914, a monument to the glory of the Polytechnic students, defenders of Paris in 1814 was inaugurated, in the presence of the President of the Republic Raymond Poincaré, in the courtyard of the Pavillon Boncourt, where the school was then located. The work was commissioned from the sculptor Corneille Theunissen.

This one conceives a monumental group, “the Conscript of 1814” which presents, in a very romantic movement, a young Polytechnician defending the flag, wearing the shako with visor, brandishing a saber in front of a cannon.
He is dressed in the thick black cloth coat with scarlet lining over the dark blue cloth trousers and black canvas gaiter with black half-ball buttons. In 1986, the monument was moved to Palaiseau where the École polytechnique has been located since 1977. A copy of this group is made and then offered to the Military Academy in West Point (New York State). It was inaugurated on October 21, 1919 in the presence of a delegation of Polytechnique students.

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