'Standing Angel', patinated bronze figure by Ferrand

This patinated bronze statue by Ernest Justin Ferrand is mounted on its base with a scrolled bronze plaque that reads: “L'HOMME EST VISIBLEMENT FAIT POUR PENSER; C'EST TOUTE SA DIGNITÉ ET TOUT SON MÉRITE”. This translates into English as, “man is visibly made for thinking; all of his dignity and his merit exists in thought”. This sentiment, expressed by the seventeenth century French philosopher Blaise Pascal, explains the meaning of this bronze: the angel, who writes with her quill upon the unfurled scroll she holds, is an angel symbolic of thought and of the written word as an act of thinking.

The bronze figure stands in contrapposto, her right foot lifted behind her. She holds her right arm above her head, grasping in her hand a quill. With her left hand she holds an unrolled scroll of paper. She stands upon a red marble stepped base, square in profile with scalloped corners. The front of the base is mounted with the plaque described above. The piece is signed Ferrand to the bronze.