Flowing curls of hair swept back from a resolute gaze under her phrygian cap: President Emmanuel Macron presented on Thursday a distinctively modern face for France's traditional symbol of its revolutionary values. By custom each new president commissions a likeness of the woman who embodies the country's ideals of freedom and equality, perhaps best known from Eugene Delacroix's painting of "Liberty Leading the People."
Macron chose the Abidjan-based French-British street artist Yseult Digan, more widely known as YZ (pronounced 'Eyes'), who painted her work across the entire wall of a public-housing estate in Perigueux, southwest France.
"I wanted this Marianne to be strong, proud and determined, with an unflinching look to the future," the artist told the roughly 150 officials and guests at the work's presentation.