At a meeting on 24 Aug. 1845, the municipal council of Aigues Mortes decided to erect a monument to Saint Louis in the town, and the mayor then wrote soliciting designs from David d'Angers, Pradier and Marochetti. David d'Angers declined to participate in this competition, pleading pressure of work. Pradier, in a letter of 20 Oct.1845, attempted to persuade the mayor that a competition was a bad idea, and recommended marble as the best material for the monument. Then on 6 December, he sent three drawings for a statue of Saint Louis. In a letter of 12 December, Marochetti informed the mayor that he had sent two sketches, one for the figure and one for the pedestal. At a meeting of 31 Jan 1846, a wash-drawing by Pradier and "une esquisse en relief" by Marochetti were presented to the Commission des Beaux Arts de Nîmes, which "after having acknowledged the talent of M. Pradier and the remarkable qualities which shone out in his whole composition", went on to regret that in his design "the gesture of Saint Louis was not shown clearly enough and that the pedestal was not in harmony with the subject and with the style of that epoch; the ensemble had seemed to them a little heavy and not answering satisfactorily to the demands of the the town which it was intended to embellish". Therefore, without hesitation, the commission gave its preference to Marochetti.
Possibly the price of 40,000 francs demanded by Marochetti for a statue in bronze on a marble pedestal, seemed excessive to the municipal council of Aigues Mortes, and no progress appears to have been made with the commission. Also Pradier seems to have used his friends in Nîmes to bring pressure to bear, since in 1847 he was offering to execute the monument in brass (laiton) for 8,000 francs or in bronze for 15,000. The Commission des Beaux Arts of Nîmes, convened by the Prefect for the Gard on 23 June 1847, pronounced in favour of bronze, in response to which the municipal council of Aigues Mortes increased its contribution to the fund from 6,000 to 12,000 francs. The subscription at this point had already brought in 17,275 francs and before its closure in 1848, it was to reach 30,195 francs. Amongst the subscribers, Louis Philippe contributed 1,000 francs and Châteaubriand, 100 francs. Pradier's statue was unveiled in Aigues Mortes on 9 September 1849.
The rivalry between Pradier and Marochetti was a longstanding one, going back to 1834, when both men had been in competition to produce a crowning feature for the Arc de Triomphe at the Etoile. It had re-surfaced in 1843, when Pradier believed that the architect Visconti was manipulating the funds for the sculpture for the tomb of Napoleon, to his disadvantage, but in favour of Marochetti. On both occasions there was the suggestion of a conspiracy among Italians, since in relation to the Arc de Triomphe, Pradier believed that the painter Gérard, who was half Italian, had been influenced by Marochetti to refrain from giving Pradier his support. The triumph of Pradier in this competiton for the statue of Saint Louis must have been one of the factors which persuaded Marochetti to leave France for England. (This account of the Saint Louis statue competition is based entirely on that given by Douglas Siler in James Pradier. Correspondance, Vol.III, (1843-1846), Geneva, 1988, pp.240-241)
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