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This sculpture was conceived in 1865 by Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), who was both fascinated by Egypt (which he had discovered on a trip in 1855-1856) and a fervent admirer of Champollion. Despite the enthusiasm of Khedive Ismaïl Pacha for the project and a financial contribution from the Egyptian government in 1867, it was not until ten years later that the statue was finally executed. Originally destined for the scholar's home town of Figeac, it was acquired by the government and placed at the Collège de France, where Champollion had given his first courses in Egyptology in 1831. It was inaugurated there in 1878 by administrator Édouard Laboulaye, who had the idea for the Statue of Liberty, also by Bartholdi.

The statue is a direct reference to Champollion's study trip to Egypt in 1828-1829. The position the sculptor gives to Champollion may offend our contemporary sensibilities, but this was not Bartholdi's intention, who drew his inspiration from two   traditions: on the one hand, meditation before the ruins of vanished civilizations, a theme to which the thinker and Orientalist Volney gave his letters of nobility :" I sat on the trunk of a column ;and there, elbow resting on knee, head supported on hand, sometimes casting my eyes over the desert, sometimes fixing them on the ruins, I abandoned myself to a profound reverie " (Les ruines ou Méditations sur les révolutions des Empires, 1789) . On the other hand, the Greek myth of Oedipus, conqueror of the sphinx, a lion-bodied monster with a human head that terrorized the region of Thebes, devouring anyone who couldn't find the answer to the riddles it posed. Combining the Greek sphinx with the Egyptian one, Bartholdi likened Champollion to Oedipus : " I wanted to make Champollion like Oedipus wresting his secret from the Sphinx ", he wrote in 1867. But contrary to this tradition, Bartholdi does not represent the two protagonists face to face. With only one block available, he had to work on a vertical axis, placing the scholar in a dominant position.

Bartholdi thus depicts Champollion as the man who, while solving the riddle of the Sphinx, shattered at his feet, is nonetheless meditative before the civilization unveiled before his eyes. It captures the scholar in an attitude imbued with both triumph and humility : victorious over the enigma of hieroglyphs, he glimpses the greatness of a culture he has yet to understand.

Bibliography : Julien Auber de Lapierre, " Une statue pour Champollion ou l'Œdipe qui vainquit le sphinx ", in J.-L. Fournet (dir.), Champollion 1822, et l'Égypte ancienne retrouva la parole, éditions du Collège de France, Paris, 2022, p. 108-126.

English translation

This sculpture was designed in 1865 by Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), who was both fascinated by Egypt (which he had discovered during a trip in 1855-1856) and an ardent admirer of Champollion. Despite the enthusiasm of the Khedive Ismail Pasha for this project and a financial contribution from the Egyptian government in 1867, it was not before ten years that the statue was executed. Originally intended for the scholar's native town, Figeac, it was acquired by the government and placed in the Collège de France, where Champollion had given the first lectures in Egyptology in 1831. It was inaugurated there in 1878 by the administrator (chairman of the Collège de France) Édouard Laboulaye, who had the idea for the Statue of Liberty, also by Bartholdi.

The statue is a direct reference to the study trip Champollion made to Egypt in 1828-1829. The pose that the sculptor gives to Champollion may offend our contemporary sensibilities, but this was not the intention of Bartholdi, who was inspired by two traditions: on the one hand, the meditation on the ruins of lost civilizations, a theme powerfully established by the thinker and orientalist Volney: "I sat on the trunk of a column; and there, the elbow supported on the knee, the head supported on the hand, sometimes carrying my eyes on the desert, sometimes fixing them on the ruins, I gave myself up to a deep reverie" (The Ruins: Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires, 1789). On the other hand, the Greek myth of Oedipus, victorious over the Sphinx, a monster with the body of a lion and a human head that terrorized the region of Thebes by devouring anyone who could not find the answer to the riddles she asked. Combining the Greek sphinx with the Egyptian sphinx, Bartholdi equated Champollion with Oedipus: "I wanted to make Champollion like Oedipus snatching the secret from the Sphinx", he wrote in 1867. But contrary to this tradition, Bartholdi does not represent the two protagonists face to face. Since he only had one block, he had to work on a vertical axis that puts the scientist in a dominant position.

Bartholdi thus represents Champollion as the one who, solving the enigma of the Sphinx, shattered at his feet, is no less meditative in front of the civilization that is revealed to his eyes. It seizes the scientist in an pose marked at the same time by triumph and humility: victorious of the enigma of the hieroglyphs, he glimpses the greatness of a culture which now remains his task to understand.

Bibliography: Julien Auber de Lapierre, "Une statue pour Champollion ou l'Œdipe qui vainquit le sphinx", in J.-L. Fournet (ed.), Champollion 1822, et l'Égypte ancienne retrouva la parole, éditions du Collège de France, Paris, 2022, p. 108-126.