ABSTRACT
The Third Republic in France emerged in the most unfavourable circumstances – military defeat, revolution, further military defeats, civil war and a humiliating peace treaty. These circumstances profoundly influenced nearly all aspects of French life, particularly during the first decades of the Third Republic. E. B. Washburne was the American Minister at Paris, representing both a republic and an administration which had recently won a civil war. With an American friend, he personally and favourably observed the events he described. After the demise of the Second Republic, republicanism had gradually re-emerged in France from the late 1850s, and by 1870 approximately thirty republicans sat in the Legislative Body, representing Paris and other large cities. This group of republican deputies, particularly those representing Paris, seized initiative in proclaiming the Third Republic. Under the Third Republic, state control and patronage of art were resumed, to the benefit of religious art and ecclesiastical architecture in the 1870s and to the sculptors of 'republican' statues thereafter.
