MONUMENT AUX MORTS DE BASSAN

The face of this hairy man was sculpted by Jacques Villeneuve
He was born in Bassan, was a pupil of Jean-Antonin Injalbert from Biterre (and Grand Prix de Rome). He took part in the World Fair of 1900, too
After World War I, Jacques Villeneuve received many orders for war memorials. So it is his Poilu, tortured by fear, by emotions, that in Bassan pays homage to Captain Soulayrol, 38 years old, killed in August 1914 in Lorraine; to Joseph Saplayrolles, 26 years old, who disappeared at the farm of Beauséjour, in the Marne, in March 1915... and to about twenty other guys from here. And this simple inscription: "Look and remember". This Poilu exists in 3 copies: one in Bassan, one in the reserves of the Museum of Fine Arts in Béziers, and one in Aniane, at the top of one of the rare openly pacifist Monuments aux Morts, in France.