The government of the Seine department organised a competition for a monument to be erected at the crossroads of Courbevoie, at the far end of the , on the extended alignment of the "Axe historique" from the Louvre, through the Tuileries to the Place de la Concorde, then along the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, along the Avenue de la Grande-Armée to the Porte Maillot, and along the Avenue de Neuilly (now the Avenue Charles-de-Gaulle) to the Pont de Neuilly . The location for the statue was the place where soldiers of the French National Guard were assembled before the Battle of Buzenval on 19 January 1871, in the last effort of the defenders to break out of the siege of Paris.