Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/209

 The Monument to General Robert E, Lee, 201

too often during the progress of his work to need repetition. It is much to be regretted that the artist cannot be present to witness the enthusiasm with which his statue is received. He is described as "a short, thick-set, squarely built man, with dark hair and eyes, and a short black beard." He is a native of Toulouse, and holding the eminence which he does in art, he is much sought in Parisian society ; he has a handsome establishment, whose windows look out on the charming gardens of the Avenue de L' Observatoire, and in the rear of his house is his studio. One of the orders he received during the past year is for a tomb to be erected in Constantinople. Mons. Mercie is a painter as well as a sculptor. He is a rapid worker ; and as an illustration of his merit, it may be mentioned that he generally has three works in the Gallery of the Luxembourg, that first camp- ing ground of a work of art on its way to the Louvre, into which noble collection an one is admitted, until ten years after the death of the artist ; and no artist is allowed to have more than three works at the same time in the Luxembourg.

ORIGINAL PLAN OF THE PEDESTAL.

Mons. Pajol, the architect of the pedestal of the Lee Monument, though short and dark-haired, is, in his slightly built, airy figure, the opposite in personal appearance to Mons. Mercie ; but, like him, he is of easy and graceful address, with cordial manners. It should be noted, in reference to his beautiful pedestal, that, as it now stands, it does not do justice to his original design, in which its massiveness is in better proportion to the size of the colossal statue surmounting it. For lack of funds the two beautiful groups modeled for the front and rear of the pedestal could not be ordered. This being the case, Mons. Pajol was asked to suppress the two projections intended to support them, and to do it in such -a way that the design might be carried out at some future day. It is most desirable that the money should be speedily raised to add these groups to the monument, and so to put the finishing touch to its beauty and grandeur. The rear group represents the Angel of Peace snatching the weapons from the hands of the Goddess of War. The front group originally repre- sented the women of the South offering branches of laurels to General Lee.

With the authority of the board. Miss Randolph, in a personal interview, requested Mons. Mercie to replace this group with a figure of Liberty, taken from the coat-of-arms of Virginia, leaning on her