This famous depiction of Marat’s assassination (1793) is by the unofficial (and sometimes official) artist of the French Revolution, Jacques–Louis David, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style. Scholars have seen this vision as a revolutionary…
Despite the demure expression created by her huge eyes, this woman also shows adherence to the Revolution through her scarf, similar in shape and color to the Phrygian cap.
Where Napoleon was once the conqueror, the world now avenges itself. This sense of reversal, felt widely outside of France, characterized a number of the caricatures of Napoleon, and indeed of the entire Revolution.
All regions of France did not support Napoleon equally. His rule aroused most enthusiasm in the east (a prerevolutionary border region crucial in the Napoleonic wars) and the center of the country, least in the west, which had long provided a home to…
The most evident statistic to be seen here is that slaves, already making up almost nine–tenths of the population, were increasing at a far more rapid rate than either whites or free people of color. Inevitably, in a revolutionary situation, slaves…
What links the many scenes we have of the King and his family is the modern sensibility on display in all of them. Of course, since dates are uncertain, we must assume that several images hail from the nineteenth century. Yet all confirm the…
