A well-dressed man in a suit has one arm outstretched to point the way forward, a French sculpture that could have been used as a directional signpost. The statue was exhibited at the Paris exhibition (salon) of 1881; the artist died shortly afterwards at the beach.
Mirabeau had been a leader in the French revolution that had just ended.
Staue de Mirabeau
by M. Caillé, for a project of M.Bruneau. (Salon de 1881.) (Monument de la Constituante) (p. 241)