and Paul de Cassagnac, Jules Ferry and Mr. de Breteuil, side by side with various other militant celebrities, such as the late Admiral Courbet, in full uniform and blue trousers.
    We now reach the present hour. Mr. Sadi Carnot, President of the Republic, was graciously pleased to come and sit for his portrait at our studio. We have surrounded him with the best known military officers of the day, General Saussier, and his Cabinet ministers.
    Close by him, or scattered in different parts of the canvas, appear many distinguished personages whose fame will certainly outlive any ministry. They include literary men, artists, scientists, all alive to-day, such as De Lesseps, Berthelot, Tame, Augier, and Pasteur. The illustrious centenarian, the late Mr. Chevreul, who had well earned the right to a comfortable arm-chair, is seated.
    All of these distinguished personages, Presidents, ministers, gifted orators, writers, painters, sculptors, chemists, and doctors,— we have painted upwards of a hundred portraits,— are grouped about a monument which embodies our panoramic idea. The whole architectural conception is consecrated to France, whose bronze statue stands out underneath a gold mosaic cupola. France grasps a flag the folds of which shelter two other statues, one of which personates the National Defense sharpening the point of a sword, and the other the genius of Labor. Below these are two more statues, one allegorizing Law and the other History. On the pedestal is inscribed the word “France”, and underneath is a golden palm-leaf with the two dates 1789—1889. On the left-hand side and on the right of this monument appear the personages first and last described — on the left Marie Antoinette and Mirabeau, and on the right Mr. Sadi Carnot and his ministers; while well in front is Victor Hugo. We thought that he who wrote ”La L gende des Si cles” might without presumption be held to incarnate for France the spirit of the century at the commencement of which he was born.

“Paris Panorama of the nineteenth century”, by Alfred Stevens and Henri Gervex. pp 256 – 269
Title: The Century, a popular quarterly / Volume 39, Issue 2
Publisher: The Century Company
City: New York