1789–1799
The French Revolution
In 1789 the people of France rose up against the king and the old system of privilege. They stormed the Bastille prison, wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and executed King Louis XVI in 1793. A time of terror followed, and the revolution ended when Napoleon took power in 1799.
Why artists painted it
Jacques-Louis David was both a painter and a revolutionary, and his pictures turned politics into art. Later artists like Delacroix made liberty itself look like a heroine.
Liberty Leading the People · Eugène Delacroix, 1830
The Tennis Court Oath
Jacques-Louis David · 1791
👁️ Painted at the time
In June 1789 the deputies of the Third Estate swear not to leave until France has a constitution.
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix · 1830
🕰️ Painted 31 years later
Delacroix's Liberty carries the tricolor over a barricade. It is about the 1830 uprising, but it became the image of the whole revolutionary spirit.
The Death of Marat
Jacques-Louis David · 1793
👁️ Painted at the time
David painted his friend, the revolutionary journalist Marat, murdered in his bathtub, as a kind of martyr.
The Storming of the Bastille
Anonymous artist · 1789
👁️ Painted at the time
On July 14, 1789, Parisians stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, a day that became the symbol of the French Revolution.
Marie Antoinette and Her Children
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun · 1787
👁️ Painted at the time
Queen Marie Antoinette sits with her children in a portrait meant to make people see her as a loving mother, after the public had turned against her.
The Battle of Valmy
Horace Vernet · 1826
🕰️ Painted 27 years later
On September 20, 1792, the French revolutionary army, mostly new volunteers, stopped the experienced Prussian army at Valmy and saved the Revolution.
The Execution of Louis XVI
Isidore Stanislas Helman · 1794
👁️ Painted at the time
King Louis XVI was beheaded in front of a large crowd in Paris on January 21, 1793, when the revolutionaries turned from reform to ending the monarchy.
The Arrival of Louis XVI in Paris
Jean Duplessis-Bertaux · 1791
👁️ Painted at the time
Louis XVI is brought back to Paris in a carriage in 1791 after he tried to flee the country, while the crowd watches in silence.
The Arrest of Louis XVI and His Family at Varennes
Thomas Falcon Marshall · 1854
🕰️ Painted 55 years later
In June 1791 the royal family, trying to escape France in disguise, was recognized and stopped by villagers in the town of Varennes.
The Festival of the Federation
Isidore Stanislas Helman · 1790
👁️ Painted at the time
On July 14, 1790, the first anniversary of the Bastille, hundreds of thousands of people crowd the Champ de Mars in Paris to celebrate the new France in a festival of unity.
Charlotte Corday
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry · 1860
🕰️ Painted 61 years later
Charlotte Corday, a young woman from Caen, stabbed the revolutionary journalist Jean-Paul Marat in his bath in July 1793 because she believed he was leading France into terror.
Portrait of Antoine Lavoisier
Jacques-Louis David · 1788
👁️ Painted at the time
Antoine Lavoisier, called the father of modern chemistry, sits in a detail from a double portrait by Jacques-Louis David in 1788.
The Storming of the Tuileries, 10 August 1792
Jacques Bertaux · 1793
👁️ Painted at the time
On August 10, 1792, the people of Paris attacked the Tuileries Palace, the king's home, and the monarchy fell.
Louis XVI Pleading before the National Convention
Reinier Vinkeles · 1795
👁️ Painted at the time
Louis XVI is put on trial before the National Convention in December 1792, with the huge hall packed with deputies.