Historical Romanticism
The transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism took less time in sculpture than in painting, and around 1830, there appeared a number of sculptures akin to historical and literary Romanticism, evidencing the "troubadour" spirit, an element of Romanticism that is well represented in the Musée des Augustins. As the memory of antiquity faded, so it gave way to national history. Often resulting from private commissions, these works such as Barye's Charles VI dans la forêt du Mans illustrate a revival at once stylistic and thematic.
The work of Félicie de Fauveau, rare in France - she exiled herself to Florence after the July Revolution - is represented in the museum by a Clémence Isaure (a theme also treated by the local sculptor Griffoul-Dorval and by Julie Charpentier), and by her Monument à la mémoire du baron Gros, so characteristic of her style. The use of an architectural, decorative vocabulary inspired by medieval art is the sign of a clean break with Neoclassical tradition. Another sign of this revival is the introduction of two urban landscapes, most unusual in sculpture, in the bas reliefs decorating the lower part of the Monument à Gros.
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