Statues

Monument to Michel Eugène Chevreul 
Marble, 1901
MNHN.OA.772 - FNAC 336

Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), who was director of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle for 29 years, was also director of the Atelier des teintures at the Manufacture des Gobelins and president of the Académie des Sciences. But for the general public of his time, Chevreul was a "scientist of fats" and the "inventor" of candles. The national festivities organised for his 100^th birthday testify to his fame.

Monument to Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Bronze and stone, 1904
MNHN.OA.776

Made possible by the legacy of Charles-Eugène Potron.
This statue has been restored thanks to the generous support of the Farjon-Lelieur family.

From 1792 to 1793, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814), author of the famous novel "Paul et Virginie", was the Garden’s last steward. We recall his Memoire on the need to add a menagerie to the Jardin national des Plantes. Maligned by scientists who resented the direction he took in his writings, Bernardin saw his position abolished by the Convention, with the creation of the National Museum.

Monument to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Bronze, 1908
MNHN.OA.775 

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) was a professor of natural history of insects, worms and microscopic animals. He spent several years establishing a reasoned classification of invertebrates. Working in multiple fields (meteorology, physics, hydrology), it was he who coined the term "biology".

A precursor of the theories of evolution and opposed to the fixist theories of his time, he developed the theory of transformism at the beginning of the 19^th century, based on the heredity of acquired characteristics.

Monument to Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Bronze, 1907
MNHN.OA.771 - FNAC 2307

This statue was restored thanks to the generous support of the patrons' club of the Fondation du patrimoine en Île-de-France: Groupama Paris Val de Loire, Patrice Besse real estate group, Les Notaires du Quai Voltaire, Raise Reim.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) and steward of the Jardin royal from 1739 to 1788, reorganised and added to the "Cabinet du Roy", enriching its collections to make it a veritable museum that would be open to the public. At the same time, he spent half the year on his land in Montbard, where he wrote his Histoire naturelle, an encyclopaedic collection of 36 volumes.