The Heart and Liberty

While going through the Musee Carnavelet, that splendid museum chronicling the history of Paris, there is a staircase that one descends which holds a sparkling political gem.  Whoever placed it there did a really good sleight of hand trick, negating the pomp and no circumstance of the "heroes" of war and of French empire.  There, without even a little descriptive plaque, is a full on portrait of a fallen solider or youth, in front of a statue that reads "Liberte" while in the far background is the French flag (obscured by distance, gunfire smoke or memory)

The portrait is signed "J. LeCoeur" which I had thought to be an alias given its political content, as Lecoeur is translated as "The Heart" but in fact the heart of the matter is that it is the artist's proper name.