The son of Prince Albert I, Prince Louis II (1870-1949) ascended the throne in 1922. A career soldier who volunteered to serve in the Great War, earning two citations during the conflict, he left the French army with the rank of Colonel when he became Sovereign Prince. After the war, the “Soldier Pr...
The son of Prince Albert I, Prince Louis II (1870-1949) ascended the throne in 1922. A career soldier who volunteered to serve in the Great War, earning two citations during the conflict, he left the French army with the rank of Colonel when he became Sovereign Prince. After the war, the “Soldier Prince” revived the policy of carrying out large-scale public works, and it was he who ordered the construction of the new Palais de Justice (1930), the International Hydrographic Office (1931), and the Stade Louis II (1939). The first Monaco Grand Prix was also held during his reign, in 1929. His efforts on the economy and social welfare had a lasting impact, with the creation of the Office of Social Assistance in 1938, legislation to protect trade union rights in 1945, the creation of the Employment Tribunal in 1946, and the introduction of old age pensions for workers in 1947. Prince Louis II also promoted the arts in the Principality, with the Monegasque Painting and Sculpture Exhibition held annually from 1926 onwards, and the creation of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in 1935. The same year, Louis Maubert produced the first marble bust of the Prince. Funded by a public subscription launched two years earlier by Monaco City Hall, at the close of the Monegasque Exhibition the bust was installed at the recently founded Musée des Beaux-Arts, before being placed in its alcove at the new courthouse in 1937. Prince Louis II died in 1949. His daughter Princess Charlotte having renounced her claim to the throne, he was succeeded by his grandson Prince Rainier III, who became Sovereign Prince of Monaco.
Louis Maubert was a French sculptor born in 1875. A pupil of Denys Puech, sculptor of Prince Albert I and winner of the Grand Prix de Rome, Maubert regularly exhibited at France’s Salon des Artistes between 1898 and 1939. He created the monument to Gambetta in 1909 erected for the visit of President Fallières to Nice, and another dedicated to Queen Victoria, installed in Cimiez in 1912. Between 1921 and 1933, he was the director of the Villa Medici in Rome. He produced statues of Nice’s leading dignitaries and numerous war memorials in France. In 1930, he sculpted the white marble bust of Monsignor Perruchot that now stands in Monaco Cathedral. He was also a medallist and made coins bearing the likeness of Prince Louis II between 1943 and 1945. He died in Nice in 1949.
