Louis Pavie, poet, writer and bookseller was one of the best friends of David d’Angers, "the friend of his heart" said this latter, for he had assisted the sculptor’s father in his last moments. David was also close friends with his two sons, Victor Pavie and Théodore Pavie. Louis Pavie was not only a scholar, he had important responsibilities in Angers in the 1820s–30 as he was deputy mayor of the city. It is especially important for the David’s posterity, Pavie was one of the initiators of the Galerie David d’Angers in 1839. The Gallery in Angers preserves one example of all the models by the artist, it still exists in Angers today with a particular lively atmosphere.

The Louis Pavie provenance is particularly interesting here, because it is him again who is at the origin of David’s first meeting with Victor Hugo in May 1827. The sculptor was particularly generous with his models, since when he made the portrait of Louis Pavie, he offered him the marble now currently at the Angers Gallery, coming from the same sale as our plaster. This plaster, the only one we have identified with the signature, the year and the dedication on the front of the piece, can be undoubtedly considered as a gift to its patron. Because of its inscriptions, it is probably one of the first examples circa 1838 when the project of the Galerie des modèles was initiated.