Prisoners of the Maison des Oiseaux

The following account of the Bonnet-Rouge's prison in the Maison des Oiseaux is taken from the memoirs of Voltaire's great-nephew Alexandre-Marie-François de Paule de Dompierre d'Hornoy (1742-1828), former conseiller maître of the Chambre de Comptes. The manuscript was published with an introductory essay by Guy Périer de Féral in the Mémoires of the Historical and Archaeological Associations of the Ile-de-France in 1952.

Arrest

Portrait said to be Hornoy de Dompierre by Quentin La Tour
(Périer de Féral, p. 110).

In 1794 even a relative of Voltaire had no guarantee of immunity from detention.   Hornoy was arrested on night of 19-20th April 1794 at his father-in-law's property, the château de Monthuchet, near Saulx-les-Chartreux, a full twenty kilometres outside Paris. Local officials were accompanied by two roving representatives from the Bonnet-Rouge section, one of them none other than Piccini, the "ardent admirer" of Voltaire.  Hornoy was told he had been denounced, though he himself considered he had been arrested simply because he was a former nobleman and magistrate (p.168) 

Piccini and his companion Ballière gave Hornoy his choice of prison. He was tempted by the Luxembourg, where he had friends, but in the end chose the Maison des Oiseaux ("my lucky star made me change my mind"). His custodians boasted of its fresh air and garden. He was allowed to take a servant and advised to "bring money", which led him to conclude that the regime would not be too harsh. (p.169)

The Section du Bonnet-Rouge and its prisons

Whatever can be imagined that is ferocious, tyrannical and inhuman, was found in the character of our commissaries, without accepting one among them

 Comment by an anonymous prisoner of the Revolutionary Committee of the Bonnet-Rouge section, 

... I once had the honour of offering you my fist to climb into your carriage.  The only service I offer you now, is to hand you up to the guillotine.

Letter to the former Duchesse de Fleury from Joseph Tosi, her former servant, member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Bonnet-Rouge.

Interior of a Revolutionary Committee. After a drawing by A.-E. Fragonard, 1797. Musée Carnavalet 
 https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/interieur-d-un-comite-revolutionnaire-a-paris-1793-1794-103eme-planche-des#infos-principales

I have now discovered a little more information about the activities of the notorious Revolutionary Committee of  the Bonnet-Rouge section... ..

The area covered by the Bonnet-Rouge centred on the carrefour de la Croix-Rouge (now place Michel-Debré) in the prosperous Faubourg Saint-Germain. It had a reputation as one of the most radical sections of Paris.  Several of its activists - Devaux, Gobeau, Godefroy, Millier - were members of the General Council of the Commune on 10th  August.  Adrien-Nicolas Gobeau was to be guillotined with Robespierre on 10 Thermidor.  Another member, a failed lawyer, Nicolas-Charles Pijeau-Villiers, was Treasurer of the Committee of General Security. Other individuals - Joseph Lebrun,  Louis Seguin, Lecreps and Savoy -  were  known agitators,  "patriotes très decidés", in the orbit of  Hébert and Vincent.

The Revolutionary Committee of the section,  however, seemed primarily intent on making a profit from its situation. The sweeping powers of arrest and detention laid down in the decree of  17 September 1793  offered the opportunity.  Every authority which had the right of arrest acquired a vast "depot" to house its suspects  - the municipality, the chief of police and every Revolutionary Committee. There were perhaps up to sixty such prisons. "We had arrived at that disastrous era when it was necessary to have Maisons d'arrêt everywhere, where every section of Paris jealously guarded its own, at the particular disposition of its Revolutionary Committee"(Histoire des prisons, 1797, t.III, p.89), The legislation specified  that suspects were to be held at their own expense; they were forced to pay for their board and lodging, for transportation,  even for the guard dogs.  It was, as one source has it, "une sorte de spéculation de finance assez lucrative"  (Précis, p.187-8)  The Bonnet-Rouge section was only one of several involved in similar ventures, but its activities were particularly extortionate.   The trial of 1795 revealed that the Committee had gone so far as to destroy whole sections of its register in order to conceal its illicit profiteering.  On the advise of Pijean-Villiers, more than thirty pages had been torn out of their official minutes and rebound with replacement pages.  According to the act of indictment, these were "men without probity and honour, who have deceived public faith, and covered themselves with the mask of patriotism".

Vivant Denon: More Revolutionary scenes

Besides his series of named Revolutionaries, Vivant Denon produced a number of other vivid drawings of Revolutionary scenes.  The Metropolitan Museum has several studies of soldiers and National Guardsmen which were acquired from the Rolls-Shelley sale in 1961:

Vivant Denon, Sketches of soldiers & Guardsmen, Metropolitan Museum collections

Vivant Denon's Robespierre revisited

Metropolitan Museum.

Severed head, said to be that of Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre (1758-1794), guillotined July 28, 1794 (10 Thermidor, An II)  . 

16.5cm x 11.3cm.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/334240

The more you look at this little drawing by Vivant Denon, the more disconcerting it becomes!  Denon's intention is illusive and the meaning of the iconography ill-defined.  Moreover, the portrayal of the fallen Robespierre is compelling and oddly sympathetic. 

Vivant Denon: Revolutionary "heads"

Vivant Denon produced a number of quirky and disturbing "heads" of well-known Revolutionaries, purportedly drawn from life before the Tribunal or on their way to execution. 

In the later 19th century these portraits were known mainly through the series of engravings by Jules Porreau, created during the July Monarchy, for the publisher and dealer Jean-Eugène Vignères.  The Revolutionaries represented are listed as: Danton, Gobel, Hébert, Fouquier-Tinville, Chaumette, Carrier and finally the Chouan leader Georges Cadoudal.  The first six were all condemned and guillotined in 1794 or 1795; the seventh, Cadoudal, was executed much later, in 1804. 

In modern times, many of Denon's original drawings have been rediscovered.  The most important set was sold in 1961 by Christie's in London as part of the collection of Lady Eleanor Shelley-Rolls (whose mother Lady Llangattock owned many of Nelson's letters.)   Some of the pictures from this auction were purchased at the time by the Metropolitan Museum; others have been acquired by the Louvre as recently as 2003. A second, hitherto uncatalogued, group of drawings was sold at auction in 2013.

Marie-Antoinette "on her way to the scaffold"

The sketch by David of Marie-Antoinette "on her way to the scaffold" is an image of enormous resonance and iconic status  - not one to be challenged lightly, even by esteemed members of the French art establishment.  However, the fact that the drawing might not be by David at all but by Vivant Denon has been quietly hinted at for some time by both the  Director of Graphic Arts at the Louvre, Xavier Salmon and by the eminent expert on David, Philippe Bordes.  Salmon first aired doubts in  his 2005 book Marie-Antoinette: images d'un destin (2005); and subsequently, more conspicuously, in the catalogue for the 2008 blockbuster expo Marie-Antoinette at the Grand-Palais in 2008. His observations did not provoke much reaction, though his dissent was noted on the very thorough Wikipedia page devoted to the drawing. 

Images of Danton cont. - David

David and Danton - preliminary thoughts

David's contribution to the iconography of Danton is fraught with doubtful ascriptions, but also with psychological imponderables. (Is this really a man who could have calmly sketched a former friend on his way to execution?)

 We know that the artist at one time enjoyed close relations with the Danton family.  He painted a portrait of Danton's first wife Gabrielle Charpentier (now in Troyes) and possibly at least one portrait of Danton himself.  Constance Charpentier was his pupil.  Another pupil, La Neuville painted Danton's mother Madeleine Camus and his sister Mme Menuel.  Boilly made a second home with Danton and depicted Louise Gély playing with one of Danton's sons.(Campagnac,1953, p.348-9).

Images of Danton

In the collective memory of the French Revolution, the larger-than-life figure of Danton is a vivid presence.  It comes as a surprise to realise how few images of Danton there actually are and how little information they yield about what he actually looked like.  Reliable depictions of Danton are small in number and virtually none of them can be deemed portraits "from live". 

 What follows is a preliminary listing (excluding portraits by David, which I am saving for a separate post).

By Constance-Marie Charpentier, Musée Carnavalet [P714] 

https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/
portrait-de-georges-danton-1759-1794-orateur-et-homme-politique-0

Oil on canvas, 40cm x 32.5cm

This is the one portrait which is beyond doubt an authentic likeness, painted by a member of Danton's family and commended for its resemblance by his wife Sophie.

A Portrait of Charlotte Corday

 

Pierre-Alexandre Wille, Portrait of Charlotte Corday, 1793
Maison (1972), Plate 34

I found it this striking image of  Charlotte Corday, drawn by Pierre-Alexandre Wille, reproduced in an article of 1972 by the American art historian K. E. Maison.  This photograph, published for the first time by Maison, is the only known record of Wille's drawing; it dates from 1939 when the picture was was included in the Carnavalet's exhibition for the 150th anniversary of the Revolution. At that time the owner was listed as Monsieur L. Brinquart, Paris. The picture is described as in red chalk, signed and dated 1793; it measures only 59cm x 51cm. 

Bébé - in images

Paintings and Drawings 

Although there are a number of different  depictions of Bébé, the only definite portrait from life is this oil by Jean Girardet, Stanislas's Court painter.  Sadly, the picture was destroyed in the 2003 fire at Lunéville and is now known only from postcards.  There are also several copies, including one at Lunéville by Girardet's pupil Dominique Pergaut, which survived the fire though it sustained some damage.  The Musée Lorrain in Nancy has a pastel version by Stanislas himself, which shows Bébé in a light blue coat.

The portrait clearly shows the dwarf's characteristic long nose and small mouth.

Here is a nice copy, with clothes in the original colours, which recently appeared at auction:

https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Portrait-du-nain-Nicolas-Ferry--dit-Bebe/DBCC6F22222D476C