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Origin and history

The Monument to Alsace and Lorraine is a work by the sculptor Alfred Boucher, originally conceived as a project not retained for the monument to the dead of Aix-les-Bains. Made of cement, this allegorical sculpture depicts two peasants wearing traditional attributes of Alsace and Lorraine, with inscriptions engraved under their feet. The group, offered to a friend of the artist, was installed in 1999 in a backyard of Claude-Seyssel Street, near the monument to the dead.

Unlike the version of the monument to the dead (on one level), this preserved project keeps a rough expressiveness, reflecting Boucher's characteristic modeling work. The original, unrestored texture offers an authentic insight into its technique. The work was listed as a historic monument on May 24, 2019, among 40 regional monuments protected for their artistic or memorial value.

Its present location, discreet but accessible, makes it a little known vestige of the Alsatian-Lorraine commemoration, linked to the consequences of the Franco-German conflicts (1870-1918). The date of 1999 engraved a posteriori marks its definitive installation in public space, far from its initial context. The monument dialogues with local history, where Boucher also carved the monuments to the dead of Aix-les-Bains and La Tour-du-Pin.

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