Laure de Noves, Marble statue in Jardin du Luxembourg, France
Laure de Noves is a marble sculpture depicting a woman holding papers or scrolls in her hands while standing on a stone pedestal. The figure is located in the western terrace of the Jardin du Luxembourg as part of a larger collection of statues.
Auguste Ottin created this marble figure in the 19th century on commission from the French royal court. The sculpture was part of an ambitious project honoring notable women in French history.
The figure is identified as Laure de Noves, the woman Petrarch celebrated in his poems to Laura. The statue holds a scroll, a detail linking her to the literary tradition that made her name known. She stands among the Queens of France and famous women on the Luxembourg terrace.
The statue stands on the western terrace of the Jardin du Luxembourg, among the series of figures set along that edge of the garden. Enter from Rue de Médicis or the western gates and follow the terrace walk; the marble pedestal is visible from the main path.
The series was commissioned under King Louis-Philippe in the 1840s for the Luxembourg's terraces; Ottin's statue was carved in 1846. Laure de Noves, the supposed muse of Petrarch, shares the garden with queens, saints and artists, so the ensemble reads as a 19th-century roll call of French history's women.
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