François Rude is best known for his monumental sculpture Départ des Volontaires de 1792 (also called La Marseillaise) that adorns the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

A small museum in the former Church of St-Étienne (entrance at 8 Rue Vaillant (map) has a collection of plaster casts of Rude's work. In addition to La Marseillaise, Rude's works include a sculpture of Napoléon dreaming of his immortality and Joan of Arc listening to celestial voices telling her to send the English away. Mythological subjects, such as Mercury, are also included.

François Rude was born in Dijon in 1784 and died in Paris in 1855. Between 1887 and 1910, the city of Dijon acquired or created casts of Rude's major works. They were installed in St-Étienne in 1947.

The museum occupies the transept of the former St-Étienne Church. It is one large room, and like other Dijon museums, admission is free and it is closed on Tuesdays.

Next to the exhibit room, in the former choir, you can see substructures of the 11th century crypte, as well as a portion of the Gallo-Roman wall dating from the 3rd century.

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