In our Portrait series :
Léon Gambetta (1838 – 1882) was a French statesman. A talented orator and charismatic tribune, Léon Gambetta aroused exceptional popular enthusiasm. The episode of his escape by balloon from Paris under siege by the Prussians in order to rejoin what was left of the French army remains famous. A staunch Republican, he denounced the imperial power of Napoleon III and, a few years later, the temptations of a monarchical restoration.
On his death, the government decreed a state funeral for the first time in the history of the Republic.
Note: Léon Gambetta became one-eyed with a glass eye as a result of an accident in his youth, and was always represented with his left profile.