ABSTRACT
Despite the economic crisis and several accusations toward the government's impotence to resolve the problem, the number of public commissions did not wane, and artists did dare to experiment when commissioned. The final statue, but also some of the conserved plasters for earlier models of the sculpture, reveal that Van der Stappen did indeed take this advice to heart, especially in light of some compositional choices. When the final bronze statues in situ are examined, it appears that the resemblances are no longer detectable. Apart from the perhaps visually most striking resemblances between the named Belgian and French sculptures, the committee, and art critics after them, did not recognize some of their significant differences. If 'national sculpture' was initially defined by its 'national iconography', and later also by the nationality of the sculptor, the 'nationality of style' became an increasingly important element that was henceforth included in this evaluation.
