Montaigne Square Paul Painlevé 1933 et 1989 Landowski had great admiration for Montaigne and was perfectly familiar with his work, sharing much of his philosophy. He obviously took great delight in sculpting this marble figure whose pose and smile have comforted several generations of students. Unfortunately, the marble statue suffered from too much hands-on affection, leading the city to remove it and replace it with a bronze copy (the original is in storage in Ivry).