Pierre-René Choudieu (1761–1838)

The medallion cast from this model would have been made shortly after Choudieu, a Republican prosecutor and politician, returned to France for the first time since the fall of Napoleon (having been exiled during the Restoration for supporting the execution of Louis XVI). Choudieu had once before been driven out of France: during the revolution, he had acted as deputy to the Legislative Assembly and National Convention but was accused of involvement in the April 1, 1795, insurrection and forced to flee the nation. In his diary, David d'Angers wrote: "Poor and in exile, Choudieu preferred to be a foreman in a printing house rather than accept aid from his former colleagues of the Convention."

Source: Scher, Stephen K., et al. The Scher Collection of Commemorative Medals. New York and London, 2019.