Artilleur, Statue in La Fère, Aisne, France

Artilleur is a limestone sculpture depicting a French artillery soldier in full military dress with historically accurate details of weapons and gear. The figure stands in a watchful pose that captures the appearance of a soldier from the 1800s.

Auguste Arnaud carved the statue in 1856 for the first Pont de l'Alma in Paris, where it stood on a pier alongside a Zouave, a Grenadier and a Chasseur à pied, representing Crimean War regiments. When the bridge was rebuilt between 1970 and 1974, only the Zouave stayed; the Artilleur was moved to La Fère because the 41st Marine Artillery Regiment was garrisoned there until 1993.

The statue depicts a 19th-century French artilleryman, one of four regimental figures made for the first Pont de l'Alma in Paris: a Zouave and a Grenadier by Georges Diebolt, an Artilleur and a Chasseur à pied by Auguste Arnaud. Its move to La Fère was decided because the town hosted the 41st Marine Artillery Regiment until 1993.

The statue stands beside the Drouot barracks in La Fère, in the Aisne department. Visitors reach it on foot from the town centre; the base carries a black plaque naming the 4e R.A.M.A. and the soldiers of the 401e R.A.P. who fell there on 17 October 1918.

The statue's base carries the carved name "ARNAUD 1858", though the work was commissioned for the first Pont de l'Alma between 1854 and 1856. A black plaque added below records that soldiers of the 401e R.A.P. fell there on 17 October 1918, and names the 4e R.A.M.A.