Saint-Just - Angel of Death?

[Post revised March 2024]

The physical appearance of a man of state has rarely assumed such importance as it has in the case of Saint-Just.  History is facinated by the image of Saint-Just as the ruthless angel of the Revolution, by his androgynous beauty.  But was he really so handsome?

Descriptions 

               Bust by David d'Angers, 1848            

Even contemporary witnesses do not entirely agree with each another.  Saint-Just's sister Louise, reminiscing to her grandchildren, recalled his "great beauty", whilst his childhood friend from Soisson, Lejeune, spoke only of his "honest appearance".  

Lamartine claimed that he was "tall", "thin" and "spindly"  Lamartine never saw Saint-Just and, in Anne Quennedey's view made him tall only to dramatise his fall.  His colleague Levasseur de la Sarte described him as "physically weak" but Paganel,  a fellow  member of the Convention, described him as "of middle height, with a healthy body and proportions which show strength".  Anne Quennedey thinks he stood a compact five feet two inches

  

Celebrating Saint-Just

The little market town of Blérancourt in the department of Aisne in Hauts-de-France in northern France is gearing up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its most famous son, Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just, born on 25th August 1767.  Last Saturday (17th June), the festivities kicked off with the planting of a Tree of Liberty on the Place du Général-Leclerc, situated  right outside the surviving gateway to what was once the feudal château which dominated the village (now the museum of Franco-American co-operation). 13th July will see the reopening of Saint-Just's childhood home, now a museum to his memory.