J.L. David (1748-1825)

The Oath of Lafayette, at the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July 1790, 1791

Paris and the French Revolution, 1789-1799 In the Collections of Musée Carnavalet

With Chris Boïcos

The musée Carnavalet has the greatest collection of paintings, prints, objects and documents about the French Revolution in France. We will use these in our presentation to follow the major events of this tumultuous period in the history of Paris, from the storming of the Bastille in July 1789 to the great festivals of the early years of the Revolution, the execution of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, and the end of the Terror with the fall of Robespierre in 1794. All the protagonists of the period from the revolutionaries - Mirabeau, Danton, Marat, Saint-Just - and the royals including the treacherous Philippe d’Orléans (Philippe-Egalité,) are very well represented in the collection, which also has great illustrations of the key locations of revolutionary Paris: the Champ de Mars, the Place de la Révolution with its guillotine, the Tuileries palace, the castle of the Templars, where the royal family was imprisoned, and many more.