L'Effort, Lead and sandstone sculpture in Jardin du Luxembourg, France
L'Effort is a lead sculpture with sandstone elements located in Paris. The work depicts a human figure and measures approximately 175 centimeters high and 280 centimeters wide.
L'Effort was commissioned from Pierre Roche for the 1903 opening of the Musée du Luxembourg's sculpture garden, and the marble version was inaugurated there on 17 January 1907. Roche, a sculptor and medallist trained under Falguière, modelled the figure in lead over a sandstone core. The work entered the national collection of modern sculpture formed for the garden.
The figure is a nude man straining to lift a heavy mass, a subject Pierre Roche tied to the myth of Sisyphus rather than Hercules. Roche, a sculptor and medallist, modelled the work in lead over a sandstone core, and its title, L'Effort, names the labour it shows. The piece stands in the Luxembourg Gardens among the sculptures of the 6th arrondissement.
L'Effort stands in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in the 6th arrondissement, on the side of the garden facing Rue de Vaugirard. Enter through the gate on Rue de Vaugirard or from Boulevard Saint-Michel, then follow the gravel walks; the sculpture sits among the garden's statues, not inside a museum. The paths are level and open to wheelchairs and strollers.
The sculpture stands in the Jardin du Luxembourg, where Pierre Roche's plaster model was shown at the 1903 Salon before the bronze was placed. Roche, a sculptor and medallist, gave the figure a strained, twisted posture rather than a heroic pose, so the effort reads in the body itself.
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