Francois Rude

François Rude , 1784-1855, French sculptor. As a Bonapartist, he left Paris after the battle of Waterloo and spent 12 years in Brussels. Rude is best known for his monumental relief on the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, The Departure of the Volunteers, known also as La Marseillaise. This work has been much admired for its patriotic fervor and force of execution. Other examples of his art are the portrait of J. L. David (Louvre) and the statue of Marshal Ney in Paris.

Rude, François (1784–1855). French Romantic sculptor. He was a fervent admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte and his emotionally charged work expresses the martial spirit of the Napoleonic era more fully than that of any other sculptor. In 1812 he won the Prix de Rome, but he was unable to take it up because of the Napoleonic Wars, and after Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 he joined J.-L. David in exile in Brussels. On his return to Paris in 1827 he became highly successful with public monuments, most notably his celebrated high relief on the Arc de Triomphe, Departure of the Volunteers in 1792, popularly known as La Marseillaise (1833–6). None of Rude's other works matches the fire, dynamism, and heroic bravura of this glorification of the French Revolution, but he created another strikingly original work in his monument Napoleon Awakening to Immortality (1845–7) in the Parc Noisot at Fixin, near his native Dijon, which shows the emperor casting off his shroud. In spite of the dramatic movement of his work, it always has a solidity that reveals his classical training and his lifelong admiration for the Antique.

Rude, François (b Dijon, 4 Jan. 1784; d Paris, 3 Nov. 1855). French Romantic sculptor. He was a fervent admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his emotionally charged work expresses the martial spirit of the Napoleonic era more fully than that of any other sculptor. In 1812 he won the Prix de Rome, but he was unable to take it up because of the Napoleonic Wars, and after Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 he joined David in exile in Brussels. On his return to Paris in 1827 he became highly successful with public monuments, most notably his celebrated high relief on the Arc de Triomphe, Departure of the Volunteers in 1792, popularly known as La Marseillaise (1833–6). None of Rude's other works matches the fire, dynamism, and heroic bravura of this glorification of the French Revolution, but he created another strikingly original work in his monument Napoleon Awakening to Immortality (1845–7) in the Parc Noisot at Fixin, near his native Dijon, which shows the emperor casting off his shroud. In spite of the dramatic movement of his work, it always has a solidity that reveals his classical training and his lifelong admiration for the antique.