Capturing the Whirlwind: Paris Depicted through the Medium of Revolutionary Prints Paul Scott Davidson Queen Mary, University of London 1 Contents Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 5 Background Note ........................................................................................................................ 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 9 1.0 Chapter One: The Impact of 1789: Approaching Revolutionary Prints ........................ 26 1.1 A Background to Prints and Printmaking in Paris ...................................................... 26 1.2 Paris in Prints: the Impact of 1789 ............................................................................ 35 1.2a A Changing City ...................................................................................................... 36 1.2b Prints of Paris in the Ancien Régime: the Monumental ..................................... 38 1.2c Genre Prints as a Vision of an Alternative Paris: Class Interaction, Disorder and Satire 45 1.2d Popular Politics and the Printed Image .............................................................. 51 1.3 Basset: A Study of a Printmakers Changing with the Times ...................................... 53 1.4 The Bastille Fortress: the Sinister and ‘Secret’ Parisian Edifice................................. 56 2.0 Chapter Two: The Impact of 1789 on Prints of the City: A Case Study of the Storming of the Bastille and Its Aftermath .............................................................................................. 63 2.1 Events Leading to the Storming of the Bastille: Uprisings of 12-3 July 1789 ............ 63 2.1a The Storming of Bastille, 14 July 1789: an Interpretation in Prints ....................... 69 2.1b Patriotism Personified: the Heroes and Prisoners of 14 July 1789 ....................... 72 2.1c The Fall of the Bastille: an Allegorical Interpretation ............................................ 76 2.1d Destruction and Creation: Symbols of the Bastille, 1789-90 ................................. 78 2.1e Scenes of Demolition, 1789-90 .............................................................................. 81 2.1f The Entrepreneurial Patriot, Pierre-François Palloy: Creation in the Midst of Destruction and Souvenir Materials ................................................................................ 83 2.2 Popular Justice and Urban Mobility .......................................................................... 86 2.2a Popular Justice and the Revolutionary Crowd: the Murders of Foulon and Bertier 88 2.2b The Revolutionary Crowd moves out of the City: the October Days, 5-6 October 1789 97 3.0 Chapter Three: Paris, the Festive Capital: the Champ de Mars and the Pantheon, 1790- 1 107 3.1 Case Study: the Fête de la Féderation ..................................................................... 107 3.1a Revolutionary Aesthetic: Ephemeral Architecture and the City .......................... 110 3.1b The Site of the Bastille: Scenes of Festivities for the Fête de la Féderation .... 114 3.2 Festivals, Parades and Funerals: Ceremonies for the Marquis Honoré de Mirabeau and Voltaire ........................................................................................................................ 117 3.2a Processions as Funerals: the Funeral of Mirabeau the Elder, 4 April 1791 ......... 118 2 3.2b Jean-Germain Soufflot’s Sainte-Geneviève and the Panthéonisation of Voltaire 122 4.0 Chapter Four: The Tuileries and the Royal Family, 1791-2 ......................................... 131 4a. Paris’s Forgotten Palace ............................................................................................... 132 4.1 The King Returns, 6 October 1789: Genre Scenes at the Tuileries ......................... 136 4.2 Images of Palatial Interiors: The Day of Daggers, 28 February 1791 ...................... 141 4.3 The Tuileries as a Centre of Political Discourse ....................................................... 149 4.4 The Tuileries: Palace or Prison? ............................................................................... 159 4.4a The Return from Varennes: the Un-Triumphal Procession ................................. 160 4.4b The Scatological in Prints: Subversive Imagery and the Royal Family ................. 165 4.5 An Invasion of Royal Space, 20 June 1792............................................................... 169 4.6 10 August 1792 and the Fall of the Bourbon monarchy: a reaction in prints ......... 173 4.6a Heightening Tensions ........................................................................................... 173 4.6b The Tuileries Under Attack: a Chronology of the Event in Prints and Journals ... 175 4.6c Capturing the Monumental Façade: Architecture and Insurrection ................... 176 4.6c The Bastille of 1792: Public Opinion and 10 August ............................................ 180 5.0 Chapter Five: Violence in the City: the Temple, the September Massacres, the Destruction of Royal Monuments and Symbols and the Role of the Place Louis XV ............ 182 5.1 The Prisoners in the Temple .................................................................................... 182 5.2 A Changing Cityscape: the Destruction of Royal Monuments ................................ 187 5.2a A Question of a Symbolic Iconography: the Demolition of Royal Statues in Public Spaces ............................................................................................................................. 188 5.2b Demolition or Vandalism? ................................................................................... 192 5.3 Violent Imagery: the September Massacres ........................................................... 195 5.3a Blood on the Streets ............................................................................................ 195 5.4 Fora of Death: Executions on the Place de la Révolution ....................................... 201 5.4a The King’s Trial ..................................................................................................... 202 5.4b The Execution of Louis Capet: Place de la Révolution, 21 January 1793 ............. 203 5.4c The Execution of Marie-Antoinette: 16 October 1793 ........................................ 209 5.4d The Place de la Révolution as a Forum of Death: Execution as Spectacle .......... 211 6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 214 Image List................................................................................................................................ 218 Fig. 2) Isaac Cruikshank, The first interview or the presentation of the Prusian pearl, 1791, etching, 274 x 333, The British Museum, reg. no. 1868,0808.6136 ...................................... 218 Fig. 3) A.P., Print of a Soldier Defecating on a Clergyman and an Aristocrat in a Street Scene, 1790, etching, 175 x 253, Waddesdon acc. no. 4232.1.80.164; Hennin no. 10725 ... 218 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 227 3 Primary Sources .................................................................................................................. 227 Secondary Sources ............................................................................................................. 233 4 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Colin Jones for his continued support, guidance, advice and patience through the course of this PhD. His insight and considerable knowledge have thoroughly added to the depth and richness of this study, without which, it would never have been completed. I would also like to specially mention Dr. Phillippa Plock, whose tireless efforts in the production of the Waddesdon catalogue, and continuing advice relating to the writing of this thesis have been crucial in enabling my understanding of the subject, and my ability to engage with it. I must also thank the continuing efforts of Professor Julian Jackson, Dr. Simon Kitson and Dr. Katherine Astbury, without whom this thesis would not have been realised. I also thank the Collections Department at Waddesdon Manor for their continuing support and use of their resources, with particular mention to Pippa Shirley, Dr. Juliet Carey, Colette Warbrick, Diane Bellis, Diana Stone, Julie Fitzsimmons and Jane Finch. I also thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK for their funding of this project and the insight of Anthony Griffiths at the British Museum. Special thanks must also go to the people who have influenced me and shaped my learning over the past decade, without whom I would never have had this opportunity. In particular: Robyn Peers, who so readily engaged me in the History of Art from an early age; Dr. Emilié Sitzia, whose continued encouragement led me towards a career in academia; and Professor Laurick Zerbini, whose continued support and advice steered me safely through my Masters and towards this doctoral thesis. Without the help of my family and friends, I would most certainly never have completed this PhD. So, I must specifically thank my parents, Scott and Olivia, whose boundless generosity (along with their continuing encouragement and support)