A Long Good Bye to the Palais Royal: the Northern Pictures in the Orléans Collection

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CHAPTER 3 A Long Good Bye to the Palais Royal: The Northern Pictures in the Orléans Collection

Executions in Revolutionary Paris were symbolically charged events, and that of Louis-Philippe-Joseph, Duc d’Orléans, on November 6, 1793, furnishes a vivid example. Less than eleven months after he had voted for the death of his relative Louis XVI, Philippe-Égalité was placed on a chariot together with four other victims of the Terror. His haphazard company consisted of Anne- Pierre Coustard de Massi, a Girondin deputy who had fallen into disgrace with the Jacobin-dominated National Convention, a locksmith named Labrousse, and two unidentified individuals. The party was to be driven the short distance from the Conciergerie, seat of the Revolutionary tribunal on the Ile de la Cité, to the execution site on the Place de la Révolution. It was the locksmith who caused trouble. Labrousse refused to ride along with Philipp-Égalité, arguing that, while it was true that he had been handed a death sentence, “the Tribunal has not condemned me to go to the scaffold in the company and on the same chariot as this infamous villain d’Orléans.”1 Finally, despite his protestations, he was wrestled down and forced to mount the royal dump truck. From the Pont Neuf to the Palais Royal (fig. 104), spectators lined the streets showering d’Orléans with insults and curses. They did not care much about the other men being driven to the guillotine. The chariot with the prisoners made a scheduled fifteen-minute stop before the iron gates of the Palais Royal in order to give

its former owner the spare time to contemplate this residence, theater of his first debaucheries, the retreat of vice and the foyer of Revolutionary crimes. A placard had been installed on the façade of the palace, pro- claiming in enormous letters and in three colors the following words: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Unity and Indivisibility of the Republic, or Death. NATIONAL PROPERTY. Upon seeing this inscription, the Duc

1 Guillaume-Honoré Rocques de Montgaillard, Histoire de France, depuis la fin du règne de Louis XVI, jusqu’à l’année 1825, 9 vols. (Paris: Moutardier, 1827), 4:151: “Je suis condamné à mort, c’est vrai; mais le tribunal ne m’a pas condamné à aller à l’échafaud dans la compagnie et dans la même charrette que cet infâme scélérat d’Orléans.”

Figure 104 Aerial view of the Palais Royal.

d’Orléans made a convulsive movement, his eyes blinked, and he pro- nounced only one word, F….., with an expressive tone of voice.2

Despite the continued raucous behavior of the crowd after the departure from the Palais Royal, Philippe-Égalité showed no further emotional reactions, a cir- cumstance that witnesses interpreted as cold-blooded disdain. He mounted the scaffold in style. Wigged and powdered with “some sense of care,” d’Orléans wore a green coat, a white pique vest, and impeccably polished leather boots. When the executioner’s assistants, in preparation for the beheading, tried to unbutton the boots, which they were entitled to keep, Philippe-Égalité called them to order. “This is time and effort wasted. Leave it. You will unbutton a

2 Ibid., 4:151–152: “Le tombereau s’arrête près d’un quart d’heure devant la grille du Palais-Royal, afin de laisser à son ancien propriétaire le loisir de contempler cette résidence, le théâtre de ses premiers égarements, le repaire du vice et le foyer des crimes révolutionnaires. On avait placé sur la façade du palais, en énormes caractères, et aux trois couleurs, les mots suivants : Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Unité et Indivisibilité de la République, ou la Mort. PROPRIÉTÉ NATIONALE. En apercevant cette inscription, le duc d’Orléans (Égalité) fit un mouvement convulsif, ses yeux étincelèrent, et il prononça un seul mot: F….., avec le ton le plus expressif.”