Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869). French poet and statesman. In 1848 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government, and became president of a provisional government in the newly proclaimed Second Republic from 24 February to 11 May 1848. He abandoned politics after Napoleon III's coup d'etat in 1851. Portrait. Engraving. "Los Heroes y las Grandezas de la Tierra" (The Heroes and the Grandeurs of the Earth). Volume VI. 1856.