Virtual Tour

Action in Chains

In addition to a large number of commissions from private collectors, Maillol at last received his first public assignment in 1905, a monument in tribute to Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881), a politician who held revolutionary and anti-monarchical convictions and spent much of his life in gaol. Maillol opted for the idea of a bound woman attempting to break her invisible chains and turning her powerful torso to the side. By using the figure of a nude woman to represent a politician, the artist put forward a new concept of the public monument.

Action in Chains-or Monument to Auguste Blanqui-caused an enormous scandal, as its radically modern concept offended the reactionary tastes of the authorities of the time.

Armless Fettered Action, 1905
Bronze, 220 x 79 x 80 cm
Émile Godard, No 2/6
Private collection