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| Aquatint by Angélique Briceau, c.1794 British Museum collections |
The heroic death of the soldier-boy Joseph Bara has long been a familiar part of French Revolutionary tradition. His story was particularly promoted during the Third Republic, when his image featured in the salles d'honneurs of regiments, and he was the subject of numerous official statues, poems, plays and paintings. Jean-Joseph Weerts's huge canvas, La Mort de Bara, commissioned by the state in 1880, adorned a salon in the Élysée Palace during the Universal Exposition of 1889. In schoolbooks "Bara's drum" was part of Republican collective memory for many decades, right down to the 1960s and '70s.
Even today, Bara is still celebrated, at least in his native town of Palaiseau where in 1979 his name was given to the local school. As recently as September 2008, the Souvenir Chouan de Bretagne was moved to send a letter of protest to Palaiseau on the occasion of an exhibition of comic-book images: [Il était une fois Joseph Bara en BD]
The life and death of Joseph Bara
The legend of Bara is untrammelled by much in the way of biographical details. The archives record only two events from his short life. The first is his birth, in Palaiseau on 30th July 1779, the third son of François Bara, a gamekeeper on the local estate, and his wife Marie Anne Leroy (Bara was the ninth of their ten children; his younger brother is described as an invalid). The boy is recorded as having been born at the château. The second is his death, recounted in a letter to the National Convention dated 8th December 1793, from General Demarres, his commanding officer in the Vendée. Between these two dates almost nothing is known.
Bara's situation becomes clearer once it is understood that General Desmarres - more properly Jean-Baptiste-Marie Desmarres d'Estimauville - was heir to the estate at Palaiseau where Bara's father worked. Demarres was one of a number of career soldiers of noble origin who successfully rose to positions of command in the Vendée. Born in 1760, he had served in the Indies from 1778 to 1785, where he reached the rank of major. In 1790 he retired to Palaiseau, but in August 1792 he once again volunteered for active service and subsequently became Adjutant-General in Army of the Coasts of Brest, then commander of the division of Bressuire.
As Jean-Clément Martin emphasises, Bara's entry into the army would have been a natural step. His family were bound by ties of service to the Desmarres d'Estimauville family and his two elder brothers were already fighting on the frontiers. The death of Bara's father October 1784 when he was five, placed the family in difficult financial circumstances. In a newly discovered local register from 1792 Bara is listed as already away from home, serving an apprenticeship in Paris. It must have been some time after this that he entered the army.
At thirteen Bara would have been too young to enlist formally, but there were numerous children with the army at this time. Like David d'Angers, they often accompanied their parents. They might participate in the conflict if required. Bara's specific duties are not known; he acted as a personal servant perhaps, almost certainly as a messenger of some sort for the general and his staff. It is unlikely he would really have been provided with a uniform as later images suggest. It is even more unlikely that he really charged the Vendeans at the head of several men, as Desmarres claimed in his letter.
The exact circumstances of Bara's death are also not known for certain. Jean-Clément Martin notes that it took place on the margins of a difficult conflict. In December 1793 Demarres's troops had occupied Jallais. Their situation was vulnerable as the surrounding area harboured armed bands of Counter-Revolutionaries who were difficult to counter. On 7th December Desmarres had to battle for three hours to repel an attack; the inhabitants of Cholet even thought that he had been killed in the confusion. Bara did not die in this exchange, but on the following day, the 8th, when - so the story goes - he was surrounded by a group of "brigands" and killed.
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| Engraving after Garneray, 1794 - detail https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53234319n |
Supporters of the Revolution said that he died protecting horses belonging to the army; adversaries claimed that Bara himself was the thief: according to the comtesse de La Bouëre he was "un petit pillard" who tried to steal his master's horses.
The website Tombes sépultures suggests a possible scenario based on the research of local historian Michel Crepellière. Bara probably left the safety of the camp to water some horses in the Ruisseau de Montatais, a stream which runs just to the south-west of Jallais. The ambush would have taken place beneath the trees in an area next to the Château de la Brinière known at the time as "le Revers".
Bara was almost certainly buried in a communal grave at the cemetery of Jallais which at this period was only 200 metres away. He may have been taken there by the refractory priest Mathurin Abafour, who made it his particular mission to give the dead of Jallais a Christian burial - it was said that the abbé Abafour sometimes carried bodies on his back for several kilometres.
A new cemetery has since built in Jallais but not all the remains were ever transferred; bones are still often found on the old site. Bara's body was never located or exhumed; the "ashes" which were to feature in commemorative ceremonies must have been purely symbolic.
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| Charles Moreau-Vauthier "Barra" (1880). |
The making of a myth - an aristocratic general
The first person to manipulate the boy's memory was Desmarres. In a letter read to the Convention by Barère on 15th December, he described Bara's heroic death and requested a pension for the child's mother, which was enthusiastically awarded. In Desmarres's version, Bara was a feisty young soldier boy who died defying the enemy:
Too young to enrol in the forces of the Republic, but burning to serve, this child had accompanied me throughout the last year mounted and equipped as a hussar: the whole army has been astonished to see him confront every danger, always charging at the head of the cavalry....The courageous child, when yesterday surrounded by brigands, chose to die rather than surrender and hand over the two horses he was leading. As virtuous as he was brave, he gave to his mother all his earnings, save what he needed to keep himself clothed and fed; he leaves her with several daughters and his younger invalid brother, and she has no other means of support.
Letter dated 18 Frimaire II, 8th December 1793. Read to the Convention on 15th January
Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, t. XVIII, Paris, Plon, 1860, p. 678
Letter dated 18 Frimaire II, 8th December 1793. Read to the Convention on 15th January
Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, t. XVIII, Paris, Plon, 1860, p. 678
A month later, a second letter from Desmarres was read out. Desmarres had since learned that Bara was to be awarded the honours of the Pantheon. Bara is now "my young pupil, my faithful companion in arms". Desmarres offers to exhume the body and to sketch a likeness for David to copy. Bara should be depicted standing surrounded by rebels, his hands gripping the bridles of the horses; his last words were: "You blasted bandit, you think you can take our horses, do you? Just try it..."
Letter of Desmarres (undated), read to the Convention on 21 Nivôse II, 10th January 1794
Réimpression de l'ancien Moniteur, t. XIX, Paris, Plon, 1861, p.177
Réimpression de l'ancien Moniteur, t. XIX, Paris, Plon, 1861, p.177
Desmarres clearly wanted to bolster his own Revolutionary credentials. As a former noble, his position was vulnerable, especially since his commander, Turreau, was close to the radical sans-culottes and Hébertistes. Desmarres soon found himself in conflict with the sans-culotte general Rossignol. By the time his second letter was read, he had already been relieved of his command and imprisoned. He was condemned by the military commission in Angers and executed on 30th January 1794.
Robespierre and Bara
What was unanticipated in the Bara affair, was the rapturous welcome given by the Convention to Demarres's letter. Barère, then Robespierre, literally seized on the opportunity to extol Bara's heroism. On 8 NivôseYear II (28th December 1793), in one of his most lyric speeches, Robespierre demanded that Bara's remains be translated to the Pantheon and a festival, orchestrated by David, held in his honour.
Robespierre had often emphasised the "butchery" suffered by patriot troops in the Vendée,and in June 1793 he had supported the cause of the adolescent Derudder, whose father had been killed in the war (see Decriem, 2021). But, this was an initiative of a different order: "To help a destitute mother whose son has been killed in the Vendée is one thing, to cite this child as an example, is only to give recognition to patriotism and civic virtue. To award him the honours of the Pantheon, is to elevate him to the level of the martyrs of Liberty...to make him the object of a civic cult." (Monnier (1980), p.324)
As Jean-Clément Martin emphasises, there can be little doubt that Robespierre's sponsorship of Bara was part of his strategic move against dechristianisation and the anarchic populism of the Hébertists. This was now to be replaced by ordered civic ceremonies and a programme of patriotic education. Bara represented an alternative to the tainted "Martyrs of Liberty" - Marat, Le Peletier and Chalier.
Bara's youth and evident virtue also made him a ready-made exemplar for schoolchildren. Desmarres had previously emphasised Bara's dutiful devotion his family, but Robespierre raised this to a saint-like level of disinterest: Bara's only loves were his mother and his country:
Among many fine actions in the Vendée, which have honoured the war of Liberty against Tyranny, the entire nation must distinguish those of a young man whose mother has already been drawn to the attention of the Convention. I speak of Barra. This young man of thirteen has performed prodigies of valour in the Vendée. Surrounded by brigands who threatened his life and demanded that he shout "Vive le roi!" he died shouting "Vive la République!" This young child succoured his mother with his wages; he divided his concerns between filial love and love for his country. It would not be possible to chose a better example, a more perfect model, to inspire in young hearts love of glory, of the fatherland and of virtue, and to pave the way for the prodiges who will operate in the coming generation. In awarded honours to the young Barra, you will reward every virtue - heroism, courage, filial love, love of country.
In Robespierre's vision, perhaps inadvertently, the aggression is drained out of Bara's character. Verbal defiance takes the place of physical violence. His last words become a sort of confession of faith; where Desmarres has him shouting invective against his attackers, in Robespierre's version he affirms his abstract loyalty to the Revolution: "Long live the Republic!".
Rather absurdly - and with a element of wishful thinking - Robespierre goes on to claim that only the Republican liberty of France can produce heroes of thirteen years old.
It was left to Barère to specify that the model was to be "traced by the brushes of the famous David" and distributed in reproduction to every primary school in the country - a proposition to which David assented enthusiastically. According to Barère, in contrast to the pride and ambition of generals, legislators, and philosophers, who had betrayed the Republic's ideals, Bara embodied "absolute virtue, simple and modest, as it is delivered from the hands of Nature".
Robespierre returned to Bara in his famous speech of 18 Floréal (7th May) which announced the official cult of the "Supreme Being" and a programme of civic festivals. The cult of virtue would expunge examples of egoism and self-seeking in the next generation; humanity stood to be transformed: "..Listen to the immortal Bara who calls you to glory from the heart of the Pantheon; come throw flowers on his sacred tomb!". At this a prearranged shout of "Long live the Republic" went up from a group of children from the Section La Fontaine-Grenelle who had opportunely been admitted to the chamber..
Oeuvres complètes : Robespierre, Maximilien, 1758-1794
Oeuvres complètes : Robespierre, Maximilien, 1758-1794
The making of a national hero
The entry of Bara into popular consciousness was almost instantaneous. Barère read Demarres letter at the tribune on 15th December 1793; the Moniteur gave an account on the 17th, and by the 18th Bara's bravery was being cited in the Annales du Civisme et de la Vertu, a publication intended for children. Between December 1793 and Thermidor, he featured in numerous poems, prints and theatrical productions. In February he was joined by another "child martyr", Viala, who was promoted by his uncle as having been killed by Federalists in Avignon in June 1793.
In the first half of 1794 Revolutionary groups also followed the lead given by the Convention through ceremonies and celebrations to honour the new hero. As Raymonde Monnier has emphasised, children often played an important role in these early, relatively spontaneous fêtes; they had their own organisations - the "jeunes sans-culottes" of the Sections and, in the provinces, the children's battalions or "Enfans de la Patrie"(Monnier, 1980)
In the Spring, there succeeded a series of more ambitious civic festivals organised by the communes - around Paris, in Fréjus, in the Yonne, or in Ganat in the Allier.
Palloy, the famous entrepreneur of the Bastille - who fancied himself a rival to David as an impressario of civic celebrations - organised a particularly ambitious event on 10 Floréal (29th April 1794) in Palaiseau, which fell within the jurisdiction of the Commune of Sceaux. Bara's widowed mother was in attendance. Representatives from the Commune then accompanied her to Paris, where she was presented to the Convention on 10 Prairial (29th May 1794) and to the Jacobins the next day. On her return Palloy donated to the Commune a plan of the Bastille.
Étienne Charavay, "La fête de Bara et de Viala", La Révolution française, revue historique
(1881) p.420-28. [Gallica (bnf.fr)]
A Festival manqué
On 18 Floréal (7th May), following Robespierre's impassioned speech, the Convention formally decreed a national festival for the "ashes" of Bara and Viala to be conveyed to the Pantheon. David was charged with the choreography. The ceremony was never to take place. Fatefully, in order to allow time for the Festival of the Supreme Being, it was delayed and was finally rescheduled for 10 Thermidor - as it transpired, the day after the fall of Robespierre.
The Convention wished the event to have a strong military character and decreed that the place of honour should be given to soldiers wounded in the service of their country. The Sections were invited to provide suitable candidates.
A prominent part was also to be played by pupils from the newly founded École de Mars where effigies of Bara and Viala were already on display in the large hall. A substantial contingent of cadets were to enjoy a place of honour, marching behind the deputies of the Convention.
On 23 Messidor (11th July), David presented to the Convention his report on the planned "heroic" festival. He declared his intention to show "the character of Republican simplicity and the august imprint of Virtue"
David envisaged a huge multi-media spectacular, incorporating a great deal of public participation. Thousands of people were to be mobilised.
The ceremony itself would comprise two contrasting phases. In the first, urns containing the ashes of Bara and Viala would be carried in solemn procession from outside the hall of the Convention in the Tuilleries to the Pantheon, accompanied by singing, dancing and "lugubrious" music. According to surviving records, the two columns were be headed up by banners, painted by David's two assistants Gérard and Serangeli and draped in red serge. David himself was to create the centre image displayed outside the Pantheon.
The second part of the festival heralded a change of mood. When the doors of the Pantheon opened, the atmosphere would be uplifted, with songs of glory to underline the moral meaning of the celebration. All sorts of representatives of the arts took part in the ceremony: the National Institute of Music, the ballet of the Opera, numerous poets and musicians. Several works were composed specially for the occasion. A hymn to music by Étienne Méhul - composer of the famous Chant du départ - was to by sung by the crowd in unison; almost four thousand copies were printed and distributed.
In the event,of course, the arrest and execution of Robespierre, were to overtake an thought of a patriotic festival, though in the provinces, from Avignon to Besançon, and from Bapaume to L’Aigle, the planned ceremonies went ahead, with participants still unaware of the political play in the capital.
In his book the Fall of Robespierre, Colin Jones traces the final preparations which were still going forward in Paris on the morning of 9 Thermidor. He notes that there had been much anticipation of the event - theatres staged performances, poetry had been composed composed, newspapers announced the details and engravers prepared to provide images of the festivities to come.
However, there were problems with the planning. Participants disagreed about the timing and about responsibility for the different parts of the day. The burden of organisation fell largely on the Sections. The previous day, the Mayor, Fleuriot-Lescot, had ordered general assemblies to be convoked in order for the deputations from the Sections to rehearse their parts. Musicians and choristers from the National Institute of Music were busy practising and the composer François-Joseph Gossec personally rehearsed his patriotic hymn.
The political leaders meanwhile had already moved on to more pressing matters. A leading role in the festival was to be played by the President of the Convention, who on this occasion was Collot d'Herbois, now a prime political player. Robespierre too had lost interest. Even David himself was absent - after his outburst in support of Robespierre at the Jacobin Club, he had retired to his sickbed for two days in order to ride out the crisis. (Jones, p.135-36)
[to be continued]
References
General:
"Le mythe Joseph Bara" - Au coeur de l'histoire du 13/06/2017 par Franck FERRAND - Replay - Europe 1 (archive.org)
Jean-Clément Martin, "Bara, de l'imaginaire révolutionnaire à la mémoire nationale". In : Révolution et Contre-Révolution en France de 1789 à 1989 (1996)
_____, "Bara, du héros de papier à l’enfant exemplaire", Inflexions 2018/1 N° 37: p.159-163
https://www.cairn.info/revue-inflexions-2018-1-page-159.htm
https://www.cairn.info/revue-inflexions-2018-1-page-159.htm
Biography of Bara:
"Glane concernant Joseph Bara", Des Écrits et de l'Histoire, post of 10.05.2022
This site contains images of the key documents relating to Bara's life.
Entry for Bara and Viala on the website, Tombes sépultures, ed. Marie-Christine Pénin.
The Festival of 10 Thermidor:
Bruno Decriem, "La Vendée dans les discours de Robespierre", L'ARBR, 19.09.2021.
Raymonde Monnier, "Le culte de Bara en l'an II", Annales historiques de la Révolution française, No. 241, 1980: Pour le centième anniversaire de la naissance de Joseph Bara. pp. 321-344.
Colin Jones, The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary France, O.U.P. (2021), p.135-42.
"Fête de Bara et Viala" on the website 9-Thermidor
Este personaje sin duda fue un héroe admirado y sin duda idealizado para el beneficio de la imagen de quien lo proponía. En tiempos presentes afortunadamente en Europa Occidental reina la paz y la armonía. Lo cual es un bien para todos los ciudadanos.
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