Which Romantic sculptor created the relief 'La Marseillaise' on the Arc de Triomphe?

Which Romantic sculptor created the relief “La Marseillaise” on the Arc de Triomphe? The answer is François Rude.

Rude created the monumental relief officially titled Le Départ des volontaires de 1792, or The Departure of the Volunteers of 1792. It was completed in 1836 on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and soon became widely known as La Marseillaise. The energetic composition is one of the defining achievements of French Romantic sculpture.

The relief represents French volunteers leaving to fight the armies of the First Coalition during the Revolutionary Wars. A powerful winged female figure, an allegory of Victory or the spirit of war, urges the volunteers forward. Its sweeping movement and intense expressions contrast with the restraint associated with academic Neoclassicism.

The work is sometimes confused with the French national anthem because both are commonly called La Marseillaise. Rude’s piece is a sculptural monument, not the song itself. His wife, Sophie Rude, is traditionally identified as the model for the central winged figure’s face.