Laurent-Honoré Marqueste

A student of Jouffroy and Falguière, Laurent Marqueste won the Prix de Rome in 1871. He started exhibiting at the Salon in 1874, and continued for many years, winning various prizes, including a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889. In 1884, he was named Officer of the Legion d'Honneur. Marqueste worked on several distinguished commissions across Paris, including a monument for Waldek Rousseu in the gardens of the Tuileries of the Louvre Museum, and the façades of the Sorbonne and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. His sculptures were often of an allegorical or mythological nature. The present figure may be interpreted as an allegory of Victory.