A monument dedicated to the memory of Aristide Briand (1862-1932), a French politician and diplomat who worked for demilitarisation and peace, located adjacent to the building of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 37 Quai d'Orsay, acts as a symbolic call to reflect on the past and remain vigilant against the challenges of the present. Because of its inscriptions and the person of the commemorated, it is an example of a work with a pacifist theme, created in response to the experience of the Great War and the growing anxiety associated with the escalating violence in the 1930s.

Artistide Briand's profile

Briand was one of the most important French politicians of the inter-war period, a supporter and promoter of the ideas of international arbitration and peace. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926 for his work on reconciliation between France and Germany. He was the originator of the Paris Pact of 1928, also known as the Brand-Kellogg Pact, which involved renouncing warfare as a tool of national policy. Moreover, it was he who in 1929 submitted the pioneering project of a European federation to the General Assembly of the League of Nations, on behalf of the French authorities.

History of the creation of the monument

The monument was inaugurated on 30 May 1937, more than five years after the idea was conceived. The monument was the initiative of the Association of Friends of Artistide Briand, which in 1932 amended its statutes with a view to transforming its activities into a committee to build a monument commemorating the politician. At its inception, the project to build a monument met with vociferous opposition from a group of MPs with a different political orientation. Nevertheless, the committee did not cease its activities and in November 1932 opened a subscription service for donors. In 1932, it succeeded in gaining the approval of the city council to create a monument at the Quai d'Orsay, as well as funds from the city council and the general council. The commission of the sculpture design competition, launched in 1933, included Georges Huisman, then director of the Academy of Fine Arts, his predecessor Paul Léon and Paul Bigot, an architect and professor at the aforementioned university. Two proposals - by Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard - were selected from among the competition models submitted, recognising the potential of combining the two projects. In order to coordinate their activities, Bigot was added to the project team, responsible for the overall composition of the project. Work on the frieze was entrusted to Bouchard, and the central figural group to Landowski.

Description of the object

The central part of the monument is a free-standing figural group, depicting the personification of Peace in the form of a woman with a shield, who is looking after a young mother and child kneeling at her feet.

It is complemented by a rectangular structure with a relief showing a procession of female representatives of various nations, including France, heading towards Briand. Above the hieratic relief are the inscription 'PAX' and representations of agricultural scenes - ploughing the land, sowing, grazing horses and sheep - alluding to the benefits of peace, the central theme of the politician's speech. Briand dominates the crowd, in which can also be seen the silhouette of a World War I veteran on crutches and a worker with a hammer. Below these two anonymous men are a woman with a baby in her arms and a girl holding a flower, attentively listening to the politician's speech. The overall composition emphasises the idea of social harmony and lasting peace.

Inscriptions

On the two pilasters situated on either side of the bas-relief and its pedestal are excerpts taken from Briand's anti-war and pacifist speeches.

On the left pilaster next to the bas-relief are quotes from the 1927 Inter-Parliamentary Conference: "Si vous avez su écouter ce murmure que fait la France aux champs, à l'atelier et dans les docks, vous connaissez la voix d'un grand peuple au travail et vous pouvez témoigner tout haut de son ardent désir de paix." (If you have heard the murmuring that echoes in France in the fields, in the workshops and on the docks, then you know the voice of this great working people and can testify loudly to their ardent desire for peace).

Below is an extract from a speech delivered before the Chamber of Deputies in 1929: "Il ne suffit pas d'avoir horreur de la guerre. Il faut savoir organiser contre elle les éléments de défense indispensables. Mon pays peut le faire sans avoir à abandonner une politique de paix." (It is not enough to feel horror in the face of war. It is necessary to be able to organise the necessary elements of defence against it. My country can do this without abandoning a policy of peace).

In addition, a quote from a speech delivered in the Senate on 25 March 1930: "Il importe essentiellement en politique internationale de ne jamais démunir son pays des moyens dont il peut avoir besoin, non pas seulement pour lui mais pour la communauté des nations solidaires." (In international politics, it is extremely important never to deprive one's country of the resources it may need, not only for itself, but for the community of nations in solidarity.)

The final sentence on the left pilaster contains an extract from the 11th Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva on 30 September 1930: "Non les peuples ne doivent pas désarmer pour que se préparent de nouvelles guerres, mais ils doivent continuer leurs efforts de désarmement dans des conditions de sécurité telles qu'il n'y ait pas de dupes ni de victimes." (Nations should not disarm so that new wars arise, but should continue their disarmament efforts in security conditions such that there are no dupes or victims).

On the right pilaster from the top, the 1927 statement: "Il s'agit de fonder la paix du monde sur un ordre légal, de faire une réalité de droit de cette solidarité internationale qui apparaît comme une réalité physique." (The idea is to create world peace on the basis of a certain legal order, so that the law becomes a reality derived from that international solidarity which manifests itself as a physical reality).

The following is an excerpt from the speech of 5 September 1929, read at the 10th session of the Assembly of the League of Nations: "Les hommes se sont donnés des juges pour éviter de se battre sur des questions d'intérêt. Les nations peuvent bien s'en donner pour éviter d'ensanglanter des champs de bataille. (...) Il n'y a pas de honte pour un pays qui croit avoir raison à proposer d'aller devant des juges qui diront où est la vérité, où est la justice. Chaque fois qu'une nation peut faire l'économie d'une guerre, elle remporte une victoire." [The people have appointed judges in order to thus avoid fighting over issues of interest to them. Nations can rely on them to avoid bloody battlefields. (...). It is no disgrace for a nation that believes it is right when it proposes to go to the judges who will adjudicate where truth is, where justice is. Every time a nation can spare itself a war, it is victorious];

and the words of Briand from the Chamber of Deputies on 13 November 1930. : "Telle est la portée de notre politique d'organisation de la paix qu'elle tend à assurer non pas seulement la paix entre nations mais aussi la paix sociale." (Such is the meaning of our peace-making policy that it aims to ensure not only peace between nations but also social peace).

To the left of the base sentences from a speech to veterans in Gourdon on 14 June 1931: "Des savants luttent chaque jour pour nous préserver de la tuberculose, du cancer. Et la guerre, l'horrible guerre serait le seul mal contre lequel l'humanité se déclarerait impuissante? Je ne veux pas le croire." (Scientists fight every day to protect us from tuberculosis, from cancer. And the war? Could it be that this terrible war is the only evil in the face of which the population is defenceless? I don't want to believe it).

On the right, an excerpt from a text delivered by Briand to soldiers of the French Eastern Army in 1927: "La France ne se diminue pas quand, libre de toute visée impérialiste et ne servant que des idées de progrès et d'humanité, elle se dresse et dit à la face du monde : Je vous déclare la paix." (France is by no means diminishing, free of all imperialist aspirations and serving only the ideas of progress and humanity, she rises and says before the world: I proclaim peace to you).

The object is signed on the pedestal "PAUL LANDOWSKI" and on the relief panel: "H. BOUCHARD' (l.d.), 'PAUL BIGOT ARCHITECT 1937' (p.d.), where the foundry stamp 'FONDERIE DES ARTISTES PARIS' (p.d.) also appears.

Related objects

• Design for a monument at the Museum of the 1930s at the Espace Landowski in Boulogne-Billancourt