La Poste unveils the new face of Marianne for stamps, the “Marianne of the future”

A “Marianne of the future”. This is the official name of Marianne’s new face for the postal stamp, which the President of the Republic will unveil this Tuesday, November 7, in Dordogne. She succeeds “Marianne l’engagee”, chosen in 2018, and will sit on our envelopes for five years.

It is therefore a Marianne with her face turned to the right who was chosen by Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron, with her hair down and obviously wearing a Phrygian cap.

It is tradition that it is the President of the Republic who chooses the face which adorns the stamps in circulation during his mandate. For Philippe Wahl, CEO of La Poste, “this Marianne is a sign of the times and a call to always continue and strengthen our commitments, alongside all French people and economic and social actors, by acting for ecological transformation and ensuring our service missions public throughout the country.

Before the choice of the presidential couple, 60 young people doing civic service were asked to express their opinions on fifteen works by selected artists, according to the press release, “for their talent and their belonging to contemporary artistic movements such as street art or ink-art”. Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron “chose the one which best expressed the republican dimension, confident in the future, anchored in the world and in the ecological transition”further specifies the press release.

It was the work of Olivier Balez, a graduate of the Estienne school, and living in Angoulême after ten years of expatriation in Chile, which was selected. Also an illustrator, he collaborated with Pierre Bara, the youngest engraver in La Poste’s stamp and secure products printing press. Their work will therefore be present on the 400 million stamps bearing Marianne’s face which are produced each year. In 174 years, the Marianne of our stamps has already seen 30 variations.