Robespierre - the view from Victorian England

William Henry Fisk (1827-1884)
Robespierre Receiving Letters from Friends of his Victims
with Assassination Threats, 1863

Oil on canvas - 64 x 100 cm
Vizille, Musée de la Révolution Française
Photo : Galerie Lécuyer

In 2009, the Musée de la Révolution Française in Vizille acquired this glorious painting by the English artist, William Fisk, which captures perfectly the Victorian stereotype of Robespierre the foppish tyrant, both sinister and faintly ridiculous. Three years later, Fisk painted another equally loaded imaginary Revolutionary moment entitled Waiting for Publication of the Moniteur with News of Robespierre’s Arrest, today in Preston at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/awaiting-publication-of-le-moniteur-for-news-of-the-arrest-of-r

Notice in The Art Tribune, http://www.thearttribune.com/Acquisitions-by-the-Musee-de-la.html