View source for Marianne

{{Short description|Personification of the French Republic}}
{{About|the symbol of France|people with this name|Marianne (given name)|other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
[[File:MariannedeTheodoreDoriot.JPG|right|thumb|Bust of Marianne sculpted by Théodore Doriot, in the [[Senate (France)|French Senate]]]]
'''Marianne''' ({{IPA|fr|maʁjan}}) has been the [[national personification]] of the [[France|French Republic]] since the [[French Revolution]], as an emblem of [[Liberté, égalité, fraternité|liberty, equality, fraternity]] and [[reason]], as well as a portrayal of the [[Liberty (personification)|Goddess of Liberty]].

Marianne is displayed in many places in France and holds a [[Place of honor|place of honour]] in town halls and law courts. She is depicted in the ''Triumph of the Republic'', a bronze sculpture overlooking the [[Place de la Nation]] in Paris, as well as represented with another Parisian statue on the [[Place de la République]]. Her profile stands out on the official government logo of the country, and appears on [[French euro coins]] and on [[Postage stamps of France|French postage stamps]].<ref>[http://www.abelard.org/france/marianne.php#who_is_marianne Marianne on French stamps]</ref> She was also featured on the former [[French franc|franc currency]] and is officially used on most government documents.

Marianne is a significant [[Republicanism|republican symbol]]; her French monarchist equivalent is often [[Joan of Arc]]. As a national [[icon]] Marianne represents opposition to [[Anti-monarchism|monarchy]] and the championship of freedom and [[democracy]] against all forms of oppression. Other national symbols of Republican France include the [[Flag of France|tricolor flag]], the national motto {{Lang|fr|[[Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité]]}}, the national anthem "[[La Marseillaise]]", the [[coat of arms of France|coat of arms]], and the official [[Great Seal of France]]. Marianne also wore a [[Cockade]] and a red [[Phrygian cap]] symbolising [[Liberty]].

==History==
{{Coin image box 1 double
| header = 20 French [[Centime]] with '''Marianne''' on Obverse.
| image = File:20 Centimes (France).jpg
| caption_left = '''Obverse''': Marianne wearing the [[Phrygian cap]] of liberty.
| caption_right = '''Reverse''': Face value and French motto: "[[Liberté, égalité, fraternité]]".
| width = 300
| footer = This coin was minted from 1962 to 2001.
| position = right
}}
[[File:La Liberté guidant le peuple - Eugène Delacroix - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 129 - après restauration 2024.jpg|right|thumb|300px|''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'' by [[Eugène Delacroix]] (1830), celebrates the [[July Revolution]] ([[Louvre|Louvre Museum]]).]]
Since classical times it was common to represent ideas and abstract entities by gods, goddesses, and [[allegory|allegorical]] [[personification]]s. During the [[French Revolution]] of 1789, many allegorical personifications of '[[Liberty]]' and '[[Reason]]' appeared. These two figures finally merged into one: a female figure, shown either sitting or standing and accompanied by various attributes, including the [[cockade of France]] and the [[Phrygian cap]]. This woman typically symbolised Liberty, Reason, the Nation, the Homeland and the civic virtues of the Republic.<ref>Compare the [[Statue of Liberty]], created as ''Liberty Enlightening the World'' by French artist [[Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi]], with a copy in both [[Paris]] and [[Saint-Étienne]].</ref> In September 1792, the [[National Convention]] decided by decree that the new seal of the state would represent a standing woman holding a spear with a Phrygian cap held aloft on top of it.

Historian [[Maurice Agulhon]], who in several works set out on a detailed investigation to discover the origins of Marianne, suggests that it is the traditions and mentality of the French that led to the use of a woman to represent the Republic.{{Sfn|Agulhon|1981}} A feminine allegory was also a manner to symbolise the breaking with the [[Ancien Régime|old monarchy]] headed by kings and promote modern [[Republicanism|republican ideology]]. Even before the French Revolution, the [[Kingdom of France]] was embodied in masculine figures, as depicted in certain ceilings of [[Palace of Versailles]]. Furthermore, France and the Republic themselves are, in French, feminine nouns (''la France'', ''la République''),<ref name=Sohn/> as are the French nouns for liberty ([[:fr:Liberté|Liberté]]) and reason ([[:fr:Raison|Raison]]).

The use of this emblem was initially unofficial and very diverse. A female allegory of Liberty and of the Republic makes an appearance in [[Eugène Delacroix]]'s painting ''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'', painted in July 1830 in honour of the [[Three Glorious Days]] (or July Revolution of 1830).

===The First Republic===
[[File:Manif pour tous Paris 2013-01-13 n11.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Mariannes during a ''[[La Manif pour tous]]'' protest in 2013]]

Although the image of Marianne did not garner significant attention until 1792, the origins of this "goddess of Liberty" date back to 1775, when [[Jean-Michel Moreau]] painted her as a young woman dressed in Roman style clothing with a [[Phrygian cap]] atop a pike held in one hand{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=62}} that years later would become a national symbol across France. Marianne made her first major appearance in the French spotlight on a medal in July 1789, celebrating the [[storming of the Bastille]] and other early events of the [[French Revolution]]. From this time until September 1792, the image of Marianne was overshadowed by other figures such as [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] and [[Minerva]].{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=62}} It was not until September 1792 when the [[First French Republic]] sought a new image to represent the State that her popularity began to expand. Marianne, the female allegory of Liberty, was chosen to represent the new regime of the French Republic, while remaining to symbolise liberty at the same time.{{Sfn|Agulhon|1981|p=18}}

The imagery of Marianne chosen as the seal of the First French Republic depicted her standing, young and determined.{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=93}} It was symbolic of the First Republic itself, a newly created state that had much to prove. Marianne is clad in a classical gown.{{Sfn|Agulhon|1981|p=18}} In her right hand, she wields the pike of revolution with the Phrygian cap resting on it, which represents the liberation of France.{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=93}} Marianne is shown leaning on a [[fasces]], a symbol of authority. Although she is standing and holding a pike, this depiction of Marianne is "not exactly aggressive",{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=93}} representing the ideology of the moderate-liberal [[Girondins]] in the [[National Convention]] as they tried to move away from the "frantic violence of the revolutionary days".{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=62}}

Although the initial figure of Marianne from 1792 stood in a relatively conservative pose, the revolutionaries were quick to abandon that figure when it no longer suited them. By 1793, the conservative figure of Marianne had been replaced by a more violent image; that of a woman, bare-breasted and fierce of visage, often leading men into battle.{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=93}} The reason behind this switch stems from the shifting priorities of the Republic. Although the Marianne symbol was initially neutral in tone, the shift to radical action was in response to the beginning of the Terror, which called for militant revolutionary action against foreigners and counter-revolutionaries. As part of the tactics the administration employed, the more radical Marianne was intended to rouse the French people to action.{{Sfn|Agulhon|1981|p=18}} Even this change, however, was seen to be insufficiently radical by the republicans. After the arrest of the Girondin deputies in October 1793, the Convention sought to "recast the Republic in a more radical mold",{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=94}} eventually using the symbol of [[Symbolism in the French Revolution#Hercules|Hercules]] to represent the Republic. The use of increasingly radical images to symbolise the Republic was in direct parallel to the beginning of the violence that came to be known as the [[Reign of Terror]].
[[File:Calendrier-republicain-debucourt2.jpg|thumb|Marianne on a poster, the ''Year III of the Republic'']]
After the Reign of Terror, there was a need for another change in the imagery, to showcase the more civil and [[nonviolent]] nature of the [[French Directory|Directory]]. In the Official Vignette of the Executive Directory, 1798, Marianne made a return, still depicted wearing the Phrygian cap, but now surrounded by different symbols. In contrast to the Marianne of 1792, this Marianne "holds no pike or lance", and leans "languorously" on the tablet of the Constitution of Year III.{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=118}} Instead of looking straight at the observer, she casts her gaze towards the side, thus appearing less confrontational.{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=118}} Similar imagery was used in the poster of the [[French Republican calendar|Republic's new calendar]].

The symbol of Marianne continued to evolve in response to the needs of the State long after the Directory was dissolved in 1799 following the coup spearheaded by [[Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès]] and [[Napoleon I|Napoleon Bonaparte]]. Whereas Mercury and Minerva and other symbolic figures diminished in prominence over the course of French history, Marianne endured because of her abstraction and impersonality.{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=93}} The "malleability" of what she symbolised{{Sfn|Hunt|1984|p=62}} allowed French political figures to continually manipulate her image to their specific purposes at any given time.

[[File:Grand sceau de la République Française image001.gif|thumb|190px|right|[[Great Seal of France]] (1848). The headdress of the Republic is identical to that of the 1886 [[Statue of Liberty]] (''Liberty Enlightening the World''). Both are prominent [[Republicanism|republican symbols]].]]

===The Second Republic===
On 17 March 1848, the Ministry of the Interior of the newly founded [[Second Republic (France)|Second Republic]] launched a contest to symbolise the Republic on paintings, sculptures, medals, money and seals, as no official representations of it existed. After the fall of the monarchy, the Provisional Government had declared: "The image of liberty should replace everywhere the images of corruption and shame, which have been broken in three days by the magnanimous French people." For the first time, the allegory of Marianne condensed into itself Liberty, the Republic and the Revolution.

Two "Mariannes" were authorised. One is fighting and victorious, recalling the Greek goddess [[Athena]]: she has a bare breast, the [[Phrygian cap]] and a red [[corsage (bodice)|corsage]], and has an arm lifted in a gesture of rebellion. The other is more conservative: she is rather quiet, wearing clothes in a style of Antiquity, with sun rays around her head—a transfer of the royal symbol to the Republic—and is accompanied by many symbols (wheat, a [[plough]] and the [[fasces]] of the Roman [[lictor]]s). These two, rival Mariannes represent two ideas of the Republic, a bourgeois representation and a democratic and social representation – the [[June Days Uprising]] hadn't yet occurred.

Town halls voluntarily chose to have representations of Marianne, often turning her back to the [[Roman Catholicism in France|church]]. Marianne made her first appearance on a French postage stamp in 1849.<ref name=Sohn>Anne-Marie Sohn. [http://hist-geo.ac-rouen.fr/doc/bls/2004/marian.htm ''Marianne ou l'histoire de l'idée républicaine aux XIX<sup>è</sup> et XX<sup>è</sup> siècles à la lumière de ses représentations''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528101820/http://hist-geo.ac-rouen.fr/doc/bls/2004/marian.htm |date=28 May 2008 }} {{In lang|fr}}</ref>

===The Second Empire===
During the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]] (1852–1870), this depiction became clandestine and served as a symbol of protest against the regime. The common use of the name "Marianne" for the depiction of "Liberty" started around 1848/1851, becoming generalised throughout France around 1875.

===The Third Republic===
[[File:Germany GB France.gif|thumb|right|The 1904 cartoon on the [[Entente Cordiale]] from ''[[punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' by [[John Bernard Partridge]]; [[John Bull]] stalks off with a defiant Marianne and turns his back on the [[Wilhelm II|Kaiser]], who pretends not to care.]]
[[File:INF3-304 Unity of Strength La liberté pour la France, les libertés pour les Français.jpg|thumb|right|"''Freedom for France, freedoms for the French''" Marianne (1940)]]

{{Multiple image
| total_width       = 400
| perrow            = 3
| header            = Statues
| image1            = Statue place de la République à Paris, 2010.jpg
| caption1          = ''The Statue of Republic'' by [[Léopold Morice]] (1880), on the [[Place de la République]], Paris
| image2            = Dalou-Republique-1.jpg
| caption2          = ''Le triomphe de la République'' (The Triumph of the Republic) by [[Aimé-Jules Dalou]] (1899), on the [[Place de la Nation]], Paris
| image3            = Statue bureau de poste Palais Bourbon.jpg
| caption3          = Statue of Marianne in the post office of the French [[Assemblée Nationale]]
}}
{{Multiple image
| total_width       = 400
| perrow            = 3
| header            = Busts
| image4            = MarianneBuste.JPG
| caption4          = Bust of Marianne (2007)
| image5            = France - Marianne, dite "marianne maçonnique" - 1743 - Maison de Victor Hugo 02.jpg
| caption5          = ''Masonic Marianne'' by [[Jacques France]] (1879)
| image6            = Marianne - symbol of French Republic.jpg
| caption6          = Bust of Marianne, [[Luxembourg Palace]], seat of the [[French Senate]]. (anonymous artist)
}}

{{Multiple image
| total_width=400
| perrow=2
| header=Coins
| caption6 = Bust of Marianne, [[Luxembourg Palace]], seat of the [[French Senate]]. (anonymous artist)
| image7 =Marianne-silver.jpg
| caption7 = Marianne helmeted version ([[Louis-Oscar Roty]]). Randalls Lost NYC collection
| image8 =5 Malagasy franc (1953).jpg
| caption8 = 5 [[Malagasy franc]] coin displaying portrait of Marianne on obverse
| image9 =20 Francs 1908 MarianneL RoosterR.jpg
| caption9 = 20 [[French franc]] [[gold]] coin, 1908. Marianne on obverse
}}
The usage began to be more official during the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] (1870–1940). Much of the popularity of Marianne was due to the fact that she symbolized French republicanism while at the same time being neutral enough to make her into a symbol that appealed to most people.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=272}} The legacy of the French Revolution tended to divide people in France as different people in France had different revolutionary heroes and villains, and unlike the United States, the French had no cult of "the Founding Fathers" whose memory was venerated by all.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=272}} For this reason, the French state tended to promote abstract symbols like Marianne as an unifying national symbol instead of using personalities from history as a national symbol in the manner which the United States used George Washington and Venezuela used Simon Bolivar as national symbols in the 19th century.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=272}} As a symbol of the Revolution and of the republic, Marianne was sufficiently inoffensive enough to appeal to most people without causing any controversy.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=272}} Marianne's femininity made her appear less threatening as a symbol of the republic than a male figure would have been.

After a turbulent first decade in the 1870s, by the 1880s the republic was accepted by most people in France and as such, the French state did not need history to justify itself, using Marianne as the unifying symbol of the republic.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=278}} The only historical event that was regularly honored in France was Bastille Day, as the storming of the Bastille in 1789 was the revolutionary occurrence that appealed to most of the French, and the rest of the events of the revolution were not officially honored in order to keep the memory of the revolution as harmonious as possible.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=278}} It was the strategy of the republican leaders to use symbols and the memory of history in such a way to create as wide a national consensus as possible in favor of the republic, which was why Marianne became such a prominent symbol of the republic.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=278}} By contrast, the newly unified German ''Reich'' had too many historical traditions to draw upon, reflecting the histories of the various German states, none of which could appeal to everybody, leading to a situation where the British historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] noted: "Like many another liberated 'people', 'Germany' was more easily defined by what it was against than in any other way."{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=278}} Hobsbawm argued for this reason, that unlike Marianne who was a symbol of the republic and freedom in general, her German counterpart, [[Deutscher Michel]] "...seems to have been essentially an anti-foreign image".{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=276}}

The [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]] in Paris (city hall) displayed a statue of "Marianne" wearing a [[Phrygian cap]] in 1880, and was quickly followed by the other French cities. In Paris, where the [[Radicalism (historical)|Radicals]] had a strong presence, a contest was launched for the statue of [[Place de la République]]. It was won by the Morice brothers (with [[Léopold Morice]] producing the sculpture and the architect François-Charles Morice designing the pedestal), in 1879, with an academical Marianne, with an arm lifted towards the sky and a Phrygian cap, but with her breasts covered. [[Aimé-Jules Dalou]] lost the contest against the Morice brothers, but the City of Paris decided to build his monument on the Place de la Nation, inaugurated for the centenary of the French Revolution, in 1889, with a plaster version covered in bronze. Dalou's Marianne had the lictor's fasces, the Phrygian cap, a bare breast, and was accompanied by a Blacksmith representing Work, and allegories of Freedom, Justice, Education and Peace: all that the Republic was supposed to bring to its [[French citizenship|citizens]]. The final bronze monument was inaugurated in 1899, in the turmoil of the [[Dreyfus Affair]], with [[Waldeck-Rousseau]], a Radical, in power. The ceremony was accompanied by a huge demonstration of workers, with [[Red flag (politics)|red flag]]s. The government's officials, wearing black [[redingote]]s, quit the ceremony. Marianne had been reappropriated by the workers, but as the representative of the Social and Democratic Republic (''la République démocratique et sociale'', or simply ''La Sociale'').

From the signing of the ''[[Entente Cordiale]]'' between France and Britain in April 1904, Marianne and [[John Bull]] personalised the agreement in a number of paintings and cartoons, most famously the Punch cartoon by [[John Bernard Partridge]]. In the struggles between ideological parties around the turn of the twentieth century, Marianne was often denigrated by right-wing presses as a prostitute.<ref>Alison M. Moore (ed), Sexing Political Culture in the History of France. Amherst: Cambria, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-60497-822-3}}.</ref> In Imperial Germany, Marianne was usually portrayed in a manner that was very vulgar, usually suggesting that she was a prostitute or at any rate widely promiscuous while at the same time being a hysterically jealous and insane woman who however always cowered in fear at the sight of a German soldier.{{Sfn|Nolan|2005|p=58}} The German state in the Imperial period promoted a very xenophobic militarism, which portrayed the ''Reich'' as forever in danger from foreigners and in need of an authoritarian government. The core of Prussian-German militarism was a cult of ''machismo'' that equated militarism with masculinity, and Marianne was used in Germany to portray France as a "weak" and "feminine" nation in contrast to "strong" and "masculine" Germany.{{Sfn|Nolan|2005|p=58}} The purpose of Marianne in German propaganda was always to promote contempt for France and with it, a warning about what Germans should not be.{{Sfn|Nolan|2005|p=58}}

The American historian Michael Nolan wrote in the "hyper-masculine world of Wilhelmine Germany" with its exaltation of militarism and masculine power, the very fact that Marianne was the symbol of the republic was used to argue that French men were effeminate and weak.{{Sfn|Nolan|2005|p=58}} In this regard, it is significant in German cartoons and posters, Marianne usually faced off against a male figure representing Germany, who was either a typical German soldier or Kaiser Wilhelm II himself and Marianne only very rarely took on Germania.{{Sfn|Nolan|2005|p=58}} In French cartoons and posters, it was Marianne who took on Wilhelm II, whose bombastic pomposity lent itself well for ridicule, and she almost never took on [[Deutscher Michel]], leading Nolan to comment that French cartoonists missed a great chance for satire since even in Germany itself, Deutscher Michel is portrayed as rather "dim-witted".{{Sfn|Nolan|2005|p=58}} On occasion, Marianne was portrayed slightly more favorably in Germany as in a cartoon from May 1914 in the magazine ''Kladderadatsch'' where Deutscher Michel is working in his garden with a seductive and voluptuous Marianne on one side and a brutish ''muzhik'' (Russian peasant) on the other; the message of the cartoon was that France should not be allied to Russia, and would be better off allied to Germany, since Deutscher Michel with his well tended garden is clearly a better potential husband than the vodka drinking ''muzhik'' whose garden is a disorderly disaster.{{Sfn|Klahr|2011|pp=544–545}}

Marianne differed from Uncle Sam, John Bull, and Deutscher Michel in that Marianne was not just a symbol of France, but of the republic as well.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|Ranger|1983|p=276}} For those on the French right, who still hankered for the House of Bourbon like ''Action Française'', Marianne was always rejected for her republican associations, and the preferred symbol of France was Joan of Arc.{{Sfn|Hanna|1985|pp=215–216}} As Joan of Arc was devoutly Catholic, committed to serving King Charles VII, and fought for France against England, she perfectly symbolized the values of Catholicism, royalism, militarism and nationalism that were so dear for French monarchists.{{Sfn|Hanna|1985|p=216}} Joan was apparently asexual, and her chaste and virginal image stood in marked contrast to Marianne, whom ''Action Française'' depicted as a prostitute or as a "slut" to symbolize the "degeneracy" of the republic.{{Sfn|Hanna|1985|p=216}} The contrast between the asexual Joan vs. the unabashedly sexualized Marianne who was often depicted bare-breasted could not have been greater.{{Sfn|Jennings|1994|p=713}} Finally, because of Joan's status as one of France' best loved heroines, it was difficult for republicans to attack Joan without seeming unpatriotic.{{Sfn|Hanna|1985|pp=218–219}} However, the royalist attempt to have Joan of Arc replace Marianne as the symbol of France failed, in large part because most of the French people accepted the republic, and Marianne unlike Joan was the symbol of the republic.{{Sfn|Hanna|1985|p=217}} In the middle of the 19th century, Marianne was usually portrayed in France as a young woman, but by late 19th century, Marianne was more commonly presented as a middle aged, maternal woman, reflecting the fact that the republic was dominated by a centre-right coalition of older male politicians, who disliked the image of a militant young female revolutionary.{{Sfn|Klahr|2011|p=546}} After British and German newspapers began to mock the middle-aged Marianne as a symbol of supposed French decline, around 1900 the younger Marianne came back into vogue to symbolize that the republic was not in decline.{{Sfn|Klahr|2011|p=546}}

In World War I, in German propaganda, Marianne was always depicted as dominating Russia, represented variously as a bear, a thuggish-looking Cossack or by the Emperor Nicholas II, with Marianne being drawn as an angry and emasculating wife.{{Sfn|Klahr|2011|pp=543–545}} By contrast, John Bull was always depicted in German cartoons as dominating both Marianne and Russia, reflecting the German perception that Britain was the most dangerous of all of Germany's enemies.{{Sfn|Klahr|2011|p=543}} When John Bull was depicted in the company of Marianne in German cartoons, she was always the submissive one.{{Sfn|Klahr|2011|p=543}}

Few Mariannes were depicted in the First World War memorials, but some living models of Marianne appeared in 1936, during the government of the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] as they had during the Second Republic (then stigmatized by the right-wing press as "unashamed prostitutes"). During World War II, Marianne represented Liberty against the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] invaders, and the Republic against the [[Vichy regime]] (see Paul Collin's representation). During Vichy, 120 of the 427 monuments of Marianne were melted, while the [[Milice]] took out its statues in town halls in 1943.<ref name=Sohn/> Under Vichy, Marianne was banned and Joan of Arc became the official symbol of France.{{Sfn|Jennings|1994|pp=712–713}} In French schools and government offices, the busts of Marianne were replaced with busts of Marshal Pétain.{{Sfn|Jennings|1994|p=714}} As Marianne was the symbol of the republic and everything it stood for, under Vichy Marianne was demonized as the most "offensive" symbol of the republic.{{Sfn|Jennings|1994|p=715}} There was a strong misogyny to Vichy's attacks on Marianne under Vichy's ideology there were two sorts of women; the "virgin and the whore" with Joan being cast as the former and Marianne as the latter.{{Sfn|Jennings|1994|p=720}}

===Fifth Republic===
[[File:5 French francs Semeuse nickel 1970 F341-2 obverse.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Marianne « ''La semeuse'' » on a five [[French francs]] coin (1970)]]
Marianne's presence became less important in French imagery after World War II, although under the presidency of [[Charles de Gaulle]] she was often used, in particular on stamps or for referendums. The most recent subversive and revolutionary appearance of Marianne was during the [[May 68]] protests. The liberal and conservative president [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] replaced Marianne by ''[[La Poste (France)|La Poste]]'' on stamps, changed the rhythm of the ''[[Marseillaise]]'' and suppressed the commemoration of 8 May 1945.

During the bicentenary of the Revolution, in 1989, Marianne hardly made any public appearance. The [[French Socialist Party|Socialist]] President [[François Mitterrand]] aimed to make the celebrations a consensual event, gathering all citizens, recalling more the Republic than the Revolution. The American opera singer [[Jessye Norman]] took Marianne's place, singing ''La Marseillaise'' as part of an elaborate pageant orchestrated by avant-garde designer [[Jean-Paul Goude]]. The Republic, after harsh internal fighting throughout the 19th century and even the 20th century ([[6 February 1934 crisis]], Vichy, etc.), had become consensual; the vast majority of French citizens were now republicans, leading to a lesser importance of a cult of Marianne.<ref name=Sohn/>

==== In the Islamic scarf controversy ====
Marianne has featured prominently in the [[Islamic scarf controversy in France]] as a symbol of a certain idea of Frenchness and femininity. The American historian [[Joan Wallach Scott]] wrote in 2016 that it is no accident that Marianne is often depicted as bare-breasted regardless of where she is or what she is doing, as this reflects the French ideal of a woman, which has been used as an argument for why [[Islamic clothing|Islamic dress]] for women is not French.<ref name="Scott Wallach">{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=Joan Wallach |date=7 April 2016 |title=The Veil and the Political Unconscious of French Republicanism |url=http://orientxxi.info/magazine/the-veil-and-the-political-unconscious-of-french-republicanism,1310,1310 |access-date=29 November 2015 |publisher=Orient XXI}}</ref> Scott wrote the topless Marianne has become "...the embodiment of emancipated French women in contrast to the veiled woman said to be subordinated by Islam".<ref name="Scott Wallach" />

Later in 2016, the French Prime Minister [[Manuel Valls]] stated in a speech that the [[burkini]] swimsuit was an "enslavement" of women and that Marianne was usually topless which ''[[The Economist]]'' noted: "The implication seemed to be that women in burkinis are un-French, while true French women go topless."<ref>{{Cite news |date=3 September 2016 |title=Ill-Suited France's Identity Politics |url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21706223-its-presidential-race-kicks-france-argues-over-burkinis-ill-suited |access-date=4 November 2016 |newspaper=The Economist}}</ref> In a speech on 29 August 2016, Valls said: "Marianne has a naked breast because she is feeding the people! She is not veiled, because she is free! That is the republic!".<ref name="Chrisafis">{{Cite news |last=Chrisafis |first=Angelique |date=30 August 2016 |title=French PM suggests naked breasts represent France better than a headscarf |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/france-manuel-valls-breasts-headscarf-burkini-ban-row |access-date=29 November 2015 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Angelique Chisafis of ''The Guardian'' newspaper reported: "The inference that bare breasts were a symbol of France while the Muslim headscarf was problematic sparked scorn from politicians and derision from historians and feminists".<ref name="Chrisafis" /> The French president [[François Hollande]] sparked much debate in France with his controversial statement "The veiled woman will be the Marianne of tomorrow".<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 October 2016 |title=A president shouldn't say that ... but Hollande did anyway |url=http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/hollande-francois-veiled-marianne-hypocrisy-frances-left-islam-muslims-election-1734017354 |access-date=4 November 2016 |publisher=Middle East Eye}}</ref>

==Origin of the name==
[[File:La République (Jonzac).JPG|thumb|180px|Marianne in [[Jonzac]] (1894). The sculpture is similar to ''Liberty Enlightening the World'', commonly known as the [[Statue of Liberty]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Poitou-Charentes Region |title=Monument commémoratif du Centenaire de la Révolution |url=http://dossiers.inventaire.poitou-charentes.fr/monuments-aux-morts/notice.php?id=IA17039357 |quote=La statue, réalisée par le sculpteur Gustave Michel, a été fondue par Louis Gasné. Elle représente une Liberté coiffée d'un bonnet phrygien ceint d'une couronne végétale. Elle porte un glaive suspendu à un baudrier, brandit de la main gauche le flambeau de la Liberté et maintient au sol de la main droite les Tables de la Loi, soit une position inverse de la statue de la Liberté de Bartholdi.}}</ref>]]
At the time of the French Revolution, as the most common of people were fighting for their rights, it seemed fitting to name the Republic after the most common of French women's names: Marie ([[Mary (given name)|Mary]]) and Anne. The account made of their exploits by the [[French Revolution|Revolutionaries]] often contained a reference to a certain Marianne (or Marie-Anne) wearing a Phrygian cap. This pretty girl of legend inspired the revolutionaries, and looked after those wounded in the many battles across the country.

A recent discovery establishes that the first written mention of the name of Marianne to designate the Republic appeared in October 1792 in [[Puylaurens]] in the [[Tarn (department)|Tarn]] ''[[département in France|département]]'' near [[Toulouse]]. At that time people used to sing a song in the [[Provençal dialect]] of [[Occitan language|Occitan]] by the poet {{ill|Guillaume Lavabre|fr}}: "''La garisou de Marianno''" (French: "''La guérison de Marianne''"; "Marianne's recovery (from illness)"). At the time Marie-Anne was a very popular first name; according to Agulhon, it "was chosen to designate a régime that also saw itself as popular."{{Sfn|Agulhon|1981|p=10}}

Some believe that the name came from the name of the Spanish [[Jesuit]] [[Juan de Mariana]], the 16th century [[Monarchomachs|Monarchomach]], a theoretician of [[tyrannicide]]. Others think it was the image of the wife of the politician [[Jean Reubell]]: according to an old 1797 story, [[Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras|Barras]], one of the members of the ''[[Directoire]]'', during an evening spent at Reubell's, asked his hostess for her name—"Marie-Anne," she replied—"Perfect," Barras exclaimed, "It is a short and simple name, which befits the Republic just as much as it does yourself, Madame."{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}}

The description by artist [[Honoré Daumier]] in 1848, as a mother nursing two children, [[Romulus]] and [[Remus]], or by sculptor [[François Rude]], during the [[July Monarchy]], as a warrior voicing the ''[[Marseillaise]]'' on the [[Arc de Triomphe]], are uncertain.

The name of Marianne also appears to be connected with several [[republicanism|republican]] secret societies. During the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], one of them, whose members had sworn to overthrow the monarchy, had taken her name.

In any case, she has become a symbol in France: considered as a personification of the Republic, she was often used on [[Republicanism|republican]] iconography – and sometimes caricatured and reviled by those against the republic, especially [[royalist]]s and [[Monarchism|monarchists]].

==Models==
The official busts of Marianne initially had anonymous features, appearing as women of the people. From 1969, however, they began to take on the features of famous women, starting with the actress [[Brigitte Bardot]].<ref name=Sohn/> <!-- with the design of the sculptor Alain Gourdon, aka [[Aslan (pin up)|Aslan]], who reportedly did the job initially as a joke.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}--> She was followed by [[Michèle Morgan]] (1972), [[Mireille Mathieu]] (1978), [[Catherine Deneuve]] (1985), [[Inès de La Fressange]] (1989), [[Laetitia Casta#As Marianne|Laetitia Casta]] (2000) and [[Évelyne Thomas]] (2003).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-02-13 |title=Bardot, Deneuve, Casta... Elles ont incarné Marianne avant (peut-être) Simone Veil |url=https://www.sudouest.fr/culture/people/bardot-deneuve-casta-elles-ont-incarne-marianne-avant-peut-etre-simone-veil-2820468.php |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=SudOuest.fr |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

Laetitia Casta was named the symbolic representation of France's Republic in October 1999 in a vote open for the first time to the country's more than 36,000 mayors. She won from a shortlist of five candidates, scoring 36% among the 15,000 that voted. The other candidates were [[Estelle Hallyday]], [[Patricia Kaas]], {{ill|Daniela Lumbroso|fr}}, [[Laëtitia Milot]] and {{ill|Nathalie Simon (presenter)|fr|Nathalie Simon|lt=Nathalie Simon}}.<ref>[http://jarle.eltelevest.no/Laetitia_Casta/Sub_Pages/Marianne.htm Laetitia Casta as Marianne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030810073700/http://jarle.eltelevest.no/Laetitia_Casta/Sub_Pages/Marianne.htm |date=10 August 2003 }}</ref> <!--"Although these figures are in theory chosen by the association of French mayors (AMF), there is no strict regulation governing the display of one over the other ones. It is believed that since 1995 this decision relies on the preferences of a small group of lobbyists "le comité de la Marinne d'or", and not on the opinion of a majority of mayors." I have suppressed this para because it is unsourced and doesn't make much sense --~~~~ -->

In July 2013, a new stamp featuring the Marianne was debuted by President François Hollande, allegedly designed by the team of Olivier Ciappa and David Kawena. Ciappa claimed that [[Inna Shevchenko]], a high-profile member of the Ukrainian protest group [[FEMEN]] who had recently been granted [[political asylum]] in France, was a main inspiration for the new Marianne.<ref name="Marianne">{{Cite web |date=15 July 2013 |title=FEMEN's Inna Shevchenko inspired France's Marianne stamp |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23320741 |publisher=BBC |quote=The artist who designed the new Marianne image for French stamps has revealed that he was inspired by topless activist Inna Shevchenko.[...] The Ukrainian, who belongs to the protest group FEMEN, was recently granted political asylum in France.}}</ref> However, Kawena and his attorney later claimed that Ciappa was falsely representing himself as having had any level of creative input on the artwork. Kawena further stated that Shevchenko, or any other figure that Ciappa claimed to be an inspiration, was in no way the model for the work, and has sued Ciappa for violation of copyright on the Marianne artwork.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 February 2014 |title=Timbre Marianne: David Kawena affirme être le seul auteur et porte plainte contre Olivier Ciappa |url=http://yagg.com/2014/02/25/timbre-marianne-david-kawena-affirme-etre-le-seul-auteur-et-porte-plainte-contre-olivier-ciappa/ |access-date=16 May 2014 |publisher=Yagg}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=6 March 2014 |title=Timbre Femen : vers un procès en France |url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/03/06/01016-20140306ARTFIG00011-timbre-femen-vers-un-proces-en-france.php |access-date=16 May 2014 |publisher=Lefigaro.fr}}</ref> Ciappa later refuted the claims that Kawena was ignored, and also revealed his legal name ("David Kawena" being a pseudonym taken from the ''[[Lilo & Stitch (franchise)|Lilo & Stitch]]'' films) in a retaliatory press release; Xavier Héraud, a writer for Yagg (a French LGBT news site), noted that in a 2013 [[Huffington Post]] piece by Ciappa<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 July 2013 |title=Olivier Ciappa: Pourquoi j'ai choisi une Femen pour Marianne |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/olivier-ciappa/femen-timbres-marianne_b_3597677.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416094033/http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/olivier-ciappa/femen-timbres-marianne_b_3597677.html |archive-date=16 April 2014 |access-date=16 May 2014 |publisher=Huffingtonpost.fr}}</ref> he never refers to Kawena and claims authorship of the images within the post.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 March 2014 |title=Timbre Marianne: Olivier Ciappa se justifie, David Kawena sort de son silence |url=http://yagg.com/2014/03/03/timbre-marianne-olivier-ciappa-se-justifie-david-kawena-sort-de-son-silence/ |access-date=16 May 2014 |publisher=Yagg}}</ref> Yagg later reported on a response to their posting from Ciappa where he said that he was not in editorial control of the Huffington Post piece and did not intend to have the phrasing be "My Marianne" as accused by Kawena in his suit; Yagg later contacted Huffington Post who informed them that they sent a draft for Ciappa to look at prior to publishing, which is the current version of the article.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 March 2014 |title=Droit de réponse d'Olivier Ciappa |url=http://yagg.com/2014/03/21/droit-de-reponse-dolivier-ciappa/ |access-date=16 May 2014 |publisher=Yagg}}</ref>

== Government logo ==
{{See also|Graphic charter of government communication in France}}[[File:Logo - République française.svg|thumb|Official logo of the French Republic]]
Blue-white-red, Marianne, ''[[Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité|Liberté-Égalité-Fraternité]]'', the Republic: these [[national symbols]] represent France, as a state and its values. Since September 1999, they have been combined in a new "identifier" created by the [[Plural Left]] government of [[Lionel Jospin]] under the aegis of the French Government Information Service (SIG) and the public relations officials in the principal ministries. As a federating identifier of the government departments, it appears on a wide range of material—brochures, internal and external publications, publicity campaigns, letter headings, business cards, etc.—emanating from the government, starting with the various ministries (which are able to continue using their own logo in combination with this) and the ''[[préfectures]]'' and ''[[départements]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Service d'Information du Gouvernement |date=24 September 1999 |title=Charte Graphique de la Communication Gouvernementale |url=http://www.emploi.gouv.fr/boite_outils/_cd_charte_graph/dossier%20compatible/charte%20com%20gouvernementale.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125083405/http://www.emploi.gouv.fr/boite_outils/_cd_charte_graph/dossier%20compatible/charte%20com%20gouvernementale.pdf |archive-date=25 January 2012 |access-date=23 October 2011 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

==Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic logo==
Marianne is one of the elements of the official emblem of the [[2024 Summer Olympics]] and the [[2024 Summer Paralympics]] in [[Paris]], combined with the gold medal and the Olympic and Paralympic flame, which is the first time in history with the same emblem.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Robinson |first1=Joshua |last2=Kostov |first2=Nick |title=She's the Face of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and France Is Aflutter |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/shes-the-face-of-the-2024-paris-olympics-and-france-is-appalled-11571931910 |access-date=27 July 2024 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=24 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Bansinath |first1=Bindu |title=Bobmania Comes for the Paris Olympics |url=https://www.thecut.com/2023/10/the-paris-olympics-has-a-new-bobbed-face-marianne.html |access-date=27 July 2024 |work=The Cut |date=26 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Columbia (name)|Columbia]], an equivalent symbol for the United States of America.
* [[Government of France]]
* [[National personification]], contains the list of personifications for various nations and territories.
* [[Statue of Liberty]] (''Liberty Enlightening the World''), a gift from the French people to the American people to commemorate the [[American Declaration of Independence]].

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Cite book |last=Agulhon |first=Maurice |title=Marianne into Battle: Republican Imagery and Symbolism in France, 1789–1880 |date=1981 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-28224-1 |translator-last=Lloyd |translator-first=Janet |oclc=461753884 |ol=4116261M}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hanna |first=Martha |date=1985 |title=Iconology and Ideology: Images of Joan of Arc in the Idiom of the Action Française, 1908–1931 |journal=French Historical Studies |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=215–239 |doi=10.2307/286583 |jstor=286583}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Hobsbawm |first1=Eric |author-link=Eric Hobsbawm |last2=Ranger |first2=Terence |author2-link=Terence Ranger |title=The Invention of Tradition |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1983 |isbn=0-521-43773-3 |location=Cambridge |oclc=916128381 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781107295636 |url=https://archive.org/details/inventionoftradi0000unse |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Lynn |title=Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution |date=1984 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-05204-8 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |ol=3184718M}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Jennings |first=Eric |date=1994 |title='Reinventing Jeanne': The Iconology of Joan of Arc in Vichy Schoolbooks, 1940–44 |journal=The Journal of Contemporary History |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=711–734 |doi=10.1177/002200949402900406 |s2cid=159656095}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Klahr |first=Douglas |date=2011 |title=Symbiosis between Caricature and Caption at the Outbreak of War: Representations of the Allegorical Figure Marianne in "Kladderadatsch" |journal=Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte |volume=74 |issue=1 |pages=437–558}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sohn |first=Anne-Marie |title=La France démocratique : (combats, mentalités, symboles) : mélanges offerts à Maurice Agulhon |publisher=Publications de la Sorbonne |date=1998 |isbn=978-2-85944-332-0 |editor-last=Agulhon |editor-first=Maurice |series=Histoire de la France aux XIX<sup>è</sup> et XX<sup>è</sup> siécles |volume=45 |location=Paris |language=fr |trans-title=Democratic France : (battles mentalities, symbols) : mélanges offered by Mauritius Agulhon |chapter=Marianne ou l'histoire de l'idée républicaine aux XIX<sup>è</sup> et XX<sup>è</sup> siècles à la lumière de ses représentations |trans-chapter=Marianne or the History of the Republican Ideal in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in the Light of its Representations |oclc=61083007 |editor-last2=Charle |editor-first2=Christophe |editor-last3=Laloutte |editor-first3=Jacqueline |editor-last4=Sohn |editor-first4=Anne-Marie |editor-last5=Pigenet |editor-first5=Michel}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nolan |first=Michael |title=The Inverted Mirror: Mythologizing the Enemy in France and Germany, 1898–1914 |publisher=Berghahn Books |date=2005 |isbn=1-57181-669-0 |location=Oxford}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last1=Censer |first1=Jack R. |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/ |title=Liberty, Equality and Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution |last2=Hunt |first2=Lynn |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |date=2001 |isbn=0-271-02088-1 |location=University Park}}

==External links==
<!-- could use more external links! -->
{{Commons category|Marianne}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130328112143/http://www.france.fr/en/institutions-and-values/marianne Marianne] - Official French website (in English)
* [http://www.ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article619 Marianne (French embassy in the USA)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130402183423/http://www.ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article619 |date=2 April 2013 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000420233311/http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/GB/HIST/MARIANNE.HTM Marianne (French Prime Minister's office)]

{{France topics}}
{{Symbols of the French Republic}}
{{National personifications}}
{{French Revolution}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Marianne (personification)]]
[[Category:Culture of France]]
[[Category:Fictional French people]]
[[Category:Fictional goddesses]]
[[Category:Liberty symbols]]