A. von Tinkas 1891 Oil on canvas The lion of Lucerne (After Landseer) Signed and dated lower left 53 1/2" x 43 1/2" In 1820-21 Karl Pfyffer von Attishofen (an Officer of the Guards) commissioned the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen to design a memorial at a sand stone quarry near Lucerne. It was built to commemorate the Swiss mercenaries who from the 17thC had served as part of the French Royal Household. On the 10th August 1792, French Revolutionaries stormed the Palace of Tulleries in Paris where the Swiss ran low on ammunition protecting King Louis XVI and over 600 were killed, 200 more died in the September Massacres that followed (approximately 760 died). The monument honours the bravery and loyalty of the dead Swiss mercenaries.