Here is a translation/ summary of Hervé Leuwers's article, "Danton et Robespierre: le duel réinventé", published in Biard & Leuwers (ed): Danton: le mythe et l'Histoire (2016). A close reading of the evidence suggests that there was no profound conflict between the two men and that Robespierre moved against Danton only reluctantly, when he felt that the elimination of factions was "necessary to the Revolution."
Wednesday 17 April 2024
The Robespierre-Danton duel reconsidered
Saturday 13 April 2024
"Even unto death" - Robespierre's letter to Danton
In March of last year an iconic piece of Revolutionary history went under the hammer when the Versailles auction house Osenat offered for sale the original manuscript of Robespierre's famous letter of 5th February 1793 to Danton. Heavy with the resonances of betrayal to come, Robespierre offers his condolences for the death of Danton's wife and expresses his friendship and love "even unto death".
ROBESPIERRE (Maximilien de). Autograph letter... - Lot 18 - Osenat
Oeuvres de Maximilien Robespierre, vol.III-1, p.160.
https://archive.org/details/oeuvrescomplte03robe/page/160/mode/2up?view=theater
Wednesday 10 April 2024
Robespierre - what's new?
May 2022 saw the publication of Volume 12 of the critical edition of the works of Robespierre, containing - among other items - the long awaited transcripts by Annie Geoffroy of the Le Bas manuscripts acquired by the French state in 2011. [On which see my post of 15.05.2015]
The event was marked on 8th February 1793 with a lecture by Hervé Leuwers, given at Arras as part of a series hosted by the ARBR-Les Amis de Robespierre. Here is a summary/English translation of his talk which has been made available on YouTube. As always, it is a great pleasure to rediscover that the foremost French expert on the Incorruptible is such a cheerful and unassuming scholar.
Professor Leuwers begins by reviewing briefly the background to the present publication. The work of editing the complete works was begun by the Société des Études Robespierristes as long ago as 1910. Ten volumes were eventually published, followed in 2007 by a supplementary volume edited by Florence Gauthier. Until the unexpected discovery of the Le Bas collection in 2011, it was thought that the Robespierre corpus was more or less complete.
Friday 19 January 2024
A little-known heroine of the Nancy Affair
It is a curious footnote to the story of Désilles to discover that a second person was credited with heroism the "Nancy Affair" - and that this was a woman, indeed a "woman of the people": the wife of the Concierge at the Porte Stainville. Here she is in Le Barbier's painting, serving the cause of peace by determinedly pouring a bucket of water over one of the cannons:
Wednesday 17 January 2024
Le Barbier's "Heroic courage of Désilles"
Le Barbier, Heroic courage of the young Désilles (1794) - detail |
The making of an artist
Monday 15 January 2024
André Désilles - forgotten Revolutionary hero
Le Courage héroïque du jeune Désilles, le 30 août 1790, à l’affaire de Nancy
1794
Huile sur toile
H. 317 ; L. 453 cm
Inv. 512
Dépôt par le Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy au Musée de la Révolution française, Vizille