Émile Louis Picault (1833-1915)

A male figure depicted in motion, accompanied from behind by a winged eagle, at a dramatic moment of action and ideal elevation. Based on the signature readable on the pedestal, the work is by Émile Louis Picault, who liked to express the themes of progress, heroism, and human will in allegorical form. The strained posture, the forward-moving gesture, and the contrasting surface treatment consciously construct the narrative power of the composition, in Picault's distinctly recognizable academic style.