This catalogue was published for the exhibition La Révolution par le dessin : les dessins préparatoires aux gravures des Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française (1789-1802) (Revolution by Drawing : Preparatory Sketches to the Etchings of the Historical Paintings of the French Revolution (1789-1802)) presented at the musée de la Révolution française in Vizille (Isère) in 2008.
This complete collection of the Historical Paintings of the French Revolution is a unique example of writing and contemporary representation of History. The editorial enterprise, active between 1791 and 1817, is studied in two volumes devoted to the etchings and accompanying texts related to the events of the revolutionary decade from 1789 to 1799.
In this last part of the study, Claudette Hould examines the preparatory sketches for the etchings.
The initiator role of Jean-Louis Prieur is reminded and that of followers is highlighted. The complexity of a creation where the artists' and engravers' role is not also easy to determine and where attribution is difficult is emphasised.
Duplessi-Bertaux, Swebach-Desfontaines, Girardet, ALexandre-Evariste Fragonnard appear related in a network of complicity at the heart of perilous political upsets: the editor Auber, in charge after Thermidor, imposed expedient standards.
23 precedently unpublished drawings from the exemplary Destailleur, kept at the Library of Congress in Washington, as well as 60 vignettes drawn by Duplessi-Bertaux for the portraits of the British Museum in London enhance a still incomplete corpus.
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