SEM (GEORGES GOURSAT) POUR LE TRIOMPHE / BANQUE NATIONALE DE CREDIT. Circa 1915

Completed in 1836, the Arc de Triomphe was based on the ancient Roman equivalent and Napoleon had hoped to march his troops through the arch in victory. Napoleon had been dead for 15 years when the arch was finally completed, but the pride of the French is captured in structure's most famous relief sculpture; Francois Rude's The Departure of the Volunteers in 1792. The French, who whose hearts were captured by the sculpture began to refer to it as the Marseillaise after the country's national anthem. Here, life begins to imitate art in a surge of patriotism designed to get the French people to buy more war bonds, as Napoleonic era soldiers stream through the arch to join their contemporaries, swelling their ranks as they march off into battle. Paret 12.