Monument de la Clairon

About

The Monument de la Clairon is a stone bust carved by Henri Gauquié, inaugurated in 1901 in Condé-sur-l'Escaut, in the department of the North, representing Mademoiselle Clairon, a famous 18th-century actress from the commune. The monument is fully inscribed in historical monuments by order of 5 February 2007.

At the end of the 19th century, the commune of Condé-sur-l'Escaut, the birthplace of actress Mademoiselle Clairon (1723-1803), wished to pay tribute to her by erecting a monument facing the theatre. Architect Henri Guillaume and sculptor Henri Gauquié are entrusted with the commission. The monument's model was presented at the Salon des Artistes Français in May 1898 at the Galerie des Machines. On the following July 2nd, an act of Zaire and an act of the Barbier of Seville were given in the morning at the Palace of the Trocadéro by actors of the Comédie-Française, led by Mounet-Sully and Coquelin cadet, "to the benefit of this monument so noticed at the Salon". The monument was inaugurated on August 18, 1901. The building of the monument is surrounded by a controversy about the manners considered light by Mademoiselle Clairon.