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The monument in Lucerne formed as a dying lion was made in rememberance of the loyal members of the Swiss Guard who died in Paris on 10th August 1792 during the storming of the tuilleries in the French Revolution. Around 1100 Swiss Guards served King Louis XVI, and 760 of them were already killed defending the palace after the royal family had left it. The monument was created several decades after these events on the initiative of an officer named Carl Pfyffer von Altishofen. It was designed by Bertel Thorwaldsen, and the carving was done by the Constance based stone carver Lukas Ahorn, who carried out the commission in an abandoned sandstone quarry near to Lucerne. The statue was inaugrated in August 1821.
The inscription "HELVETIORUM FIDEI AC VIRTUTI" can be read above the lion to commemorate the loyalty and bravery of the soldiers, and a list of the fallen and saved guard members is engraved below. Mark Twain described the Lucerne monument as the "saddest and most moving piece of stone in the world".
Gustav Seelos, the painter of this piece, was actually employed as chief engineer of the Austrian rail service, but he also created a significant number of charming landscape paintings and watercolours.