France commissioned the original statue in 1870 after losing the Franco-Prussian War, a glittering likeness of its patron saint to boost morale. It sits outside the luxe Hotel Regina in Paris’s first arrondissement, framed by the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. Nancy, France; Melbourne, Australia; and New Orleans and Philadelphia all have their own copies made from sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet’s original molds. Though Portland’s souvenir may have the quirk of being the trickiest to access, protected on its humble, grassy loop de loop by an unrelenting swirl of traffic.
Coe commissioned the statue as tribute to veterans of the Great War. The other three monuments he donated to the city—of Lincoln, Washington, and his old hunting buddy Teddy Roosevelt—are in storage after being toppled during protests in 2020. But Joan of Arc remains on her horse despite bouts with vandalism. As the O reported, an “informal and altogether illegal unveiling” a week before the official dedication set a tone. Her laurels and pennant have been stolen and replaced more than a few times. Teens soaked the statue in black paint after a re-gilding in 2002. (She’d gotten a little green.) And in 2012, someone taped a giant drill bit to the horse’s head, turning it into a unicorn and somehow causing $1,800 of damage. Still, Portland generally seems to like its Joan of Arc. Coe’s patriotic motives aside, perhaps the legend of a spiritually inclined teenager subverting gender roles through radical political action serves a different inspiration today.
Posted 3 days ago.
