The French Revolution (“Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga) - by the fabulous historyteachers
Duchess de Polignac - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of Madame du Barry - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
December 8, 1793 - Madame du Barry is executed.
Image via - The Corcoran
Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine. (Pen and ink - Jacques-Louis David, 16 October 1793)
A Fountain in the Park - Hubert Robert
“Robert studied painting in Italy. During his eleven-year stay in that country he was strongly influenced by Italian vedute artists (painters of Romantic scenes) and introduced landscapes of this type into French art. Fountain in the Park belongs to Robert’s most accomplished period. It may have been inspired by the gardens of the Tuileries, or could be an imaginary arrangement without topographical accuracy.
The artist’s strong interest in landscape planning won him an appointment by King Louis XVI as ‘designer of gardens.’ Although sympathetic to the French Revolution, Robert was accused of loyalty to the Court and was imprisoned for nearly a year. Upon his release, he became one of the first directors of the Louvre.” - Seen at MoFA
“The king must die so that the country can live.” - Maximilien Robespierre
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles."
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
June 20, 1789
Members of the Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath during a meeting of the Estates-General.
The Oath of the Tennis Court - Jacques-Louis David, 1791
“The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned to establish the constitution of the kingdom, to effect the regeneration of public order, and to maintain the true principles of monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to established itself; and, finally, that wheresoever its members are assembled, there is the National Assembly; decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon firm foundations; and that, the said oath taken, all members and each one of them individually shall ratify this steadfast resolution by signature.”
(via)
I love this detailed image:
Deputies swearing oaths - Jacques-Louis David, 1791
Etching from 1789 depicting the storming of the Bastille
First Caption:
Storming of the Bastille. The citizens of Paris led by the Gardes Françaises on the 14th of July 1789. Building of this fortification started in 1369 during the reign of Charles V. Hugues Aubriot, a native of Dijon and Provost of Paris, laid the first stone. Construction was completed in 1382. Aubriot was born in Dijon. He became one of the first prisoners of the Bastille, imprisoned under the pretext of heresy. He was liberated by the Parisians during the troubles that stirred the capital, and escaped to his motherland.
Second caption:
This is how we punish traitors.
"Rien (Nothing)"
— Entry in Louis XVI’s journal for 14 July 1789.
October 16, 1793
Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
