[The Vendôme Column After Being Torn Down by the Communards] 1870s

Hippolyte-Auguste Collard took this photograph of the Vendôme Column after its destruction, in Paris, sometime in 1871. The image shows a pile of rubble and the severed statue of Napoleon in the foreground, and the buildings of the Place Vendôme in the background. The Vendôme Column was originally erected to celebrate Napoleon Bonaparte's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. After the Franco-Prussian War, radical members of the Paris Commune viewed the monument as a symbol of imperialism. They voted for its demolition on April 12, 1871, and it was pulled down a month later. Collard's photograph shows the aftermath of this act of iconoclasm. To understand the significance of this image, one might research the history of the Paris Commune, the Franco-Prussian War, and the role of public monuments in shaping national identity. This photograph stands as evidence of how political and social change can impact artistic and cultural heritage.