#frev busts

[robespapier]

Halloween was yesterday so I'm late, but look at the spooky busts of the place de la Révolution in Montpellier

I mean, I don't know what went wrong with the reproductions of the David d'Angers busts, but they look very rough and cursed

From top to bottom and left to right: Couthon, Saint-Just, Jussieu, Sieyès, Lafayette, and La Révellière-Lépeaux without his famous microbangs mullet. The pictures aren't mine, they're from here.

See the original David d'Angers busts of Saint-Just and Couthon for comparaison

It seems mostly a problem with the d'Angers reproductions cause the other busts in the same place are...well, still cursed...but not as rought looking?

From top to bottom, left to right: Marat by ???, Danton by Paul Eugène Victor Bacquet, Desmoulins by François Martin, Barnave by Jean-Antoine Houdon, Manon Roland by Emile Carlier, and Bailly by Louis-Pierre Deseine. The pictures aren't mine, they're from here.

And then there's the Robespierre by Claude-André Deseine, who's doing alright and has some spiders friends 🕷🕷🕷 (picture from here)

[czerwonykasztelanic]

Pencil study

[safrev]

some sketches i did recently

[empirearchives]

Bust of Napoleon, by Charles-Louis Corbet. It was premiered at the salon of 1798. It’s so beautiful 😭😭

[welcometotheduplays]

lotte doodl

[mali-umkin]

Can you spot the Robespierre?

[revolutionarywig]

Frev locations compile

Thought of compiling a list of frev significant locations so it can help with recommendations for anyone who happens to be travelling/visiting! This is only done to my knowledge and not a complete list, please feel free to suggest if you happen to know more locations that I completely missed!

so here is the frev pilgrimage list! Long post warning.

(Note: The items are not in any particular order)

(Note: I typed this post up a long time ago but couldn't finish, a lot of thanks to the people who helped out on contributing information and your patience with me.)

Musée Carnavalet (Paris)

This one is very obvious, it is a must go for seeing a collection of frev related artifacts and paintings, including Couthon’s wheelchair, Robespierre’s hair, the most iconic portraits etc. Also its FREE.

Panthéon (Paris)

You can see the statue of the National Convention deputies. It doesnt have too much related to frev directly, but Rousseau and Voltaire (and Carnot…..) are interred there

La Conciergerie (Paris)

If you want to see the Deseine bust of Robespierre, but cant go to Vizille, there is a copy of it here within Paris at the conciergerie. It is the place where most frev figures as well as Antoinette spent their last monents.

Musée des archives nationales (Paris)

(June 2023) There is a temporary exhibit featuring frev rn which I highly recommend (also its free to go so like GO)

But beyond the temporary exhibit, I believe there are still a few things in permanent collection (Robespierre’s note book page, Antoinette’s last letter in prison, Comte d’Artois’ letter etc), including the famous 9 thermidor table that Robespierre supposedly lied on. the museum is free to visit.

Père la Chaise (Paris)

@robespapier wrote a better post on navigating the cemetery. It helped me so much with finding the graves of Lebas, Elisabeth and Eleonore Duplay! Thank you so much for the guide!

Rue Saint Honoré (Paris)

the current address of the Duplays household is 398 rue saint-honoré, which is now next to a louboutin store…. There is a commemorative plaque there indicating Robespierre’s residence there. Im not sure about going inside the residence….There was construction when I visited and the door was open, heres how it looks on the inside.

SJ’s bust (Paris & Angers)

I have not visited either of the two locations yet, but you can find that white bust of Saint-Just (that seemed to be modelled after the pastel portrait in the Carnavalet) in either Petit Palais (Paris) or Galerie David d’Angers (Angers). @orpheusmori has posted some Petit Palais pictures here @robespapier has posted some Galerie David d'Angers pictures here

Marat sign (Paris)

i have an image of this plaque sitting on my phone, I forgot where it was located until @orpheusmori helped me track the location of it! It is in the Odéon area and should be in the small narrow street with the back side of Le Procope. It commemorates the location as an important area during the French Revolution as well as the place where Marat established his printing shop.

The front of the same building also has another Marat plaque! I didnt know about it before thank you @orpheusmori for finding and contributing the photo! This one is above an Jewellery store (Amour de Pierres) https://maps.app.goo.gl/8X9zgKYpMiLJcULq7

Olympe de Gouges sign (Paris)

Once again, i have a photo of the plaque proving its existence, but I took it years ago and i dont remember where it was exactly.... It was all in the Odéon area, it shouldn’t be too far from the other….

Danton statue (Paris)

there is a Danton statue! Right outside the Odéon metro! You cant miss it. Also the placement of the statue is where he once lived.

Procope (Paris)

Its a really old cafe frequented by a lot of philosophes as well as many frev figures. There is also a bicorn from Napoleon inside. Right now its still a restaurant establishment, and its difficult to visit unless you eat inside….which is expensive…. However ! This whole general Odéon area is full of other frev landmarks (some more mentioned below). Including the metro station which has a bust of Danton.

Versailles revolutionary room (Versailles)

Beyond the royal family, there is a room dedicated to a lot of major Revolutionary Army generals and battles. Theres that one painting of Lafayette if u into that

Musée des armes/Invalides (Paris)

It has a significant collection of military artefacts from the French Revolution and its a really good resource for armory researches. The museum also has a sword that belonged to Lafayette, as well as a sword belonging to Carnot during the Directoire (image below)

Louvre

The Louvre does not have a lot relating to the French Revolution but it has a few significant paintings and a lot of David’s work. One of the Death of Marat copies produced by David’s studio should be in the museum, as well as a painting featuring the battke of fleurus (with SJ cameo)

Tennis court (Versailles)

Near the palace of Versailles you can find the room where the deputies swore the famous oaths. It is free to enter, although last time I went it was undergoing construction, hopefully it should have finished by now.

Musée de la Révolution Française (Vizille)

If you can go to Vizille… GO TO VIZILLE! The easiest way by transport would be to stay at Grenoble then take one of the buses that runs between Grenoble and Vizille. It is a whole museum dedicated to the revolution (and it is free) and the park is really pretty. This is where you can find the statue of Marat,

The Deseine busts including dear Bonbon,

And DJ Saint-Just.

Also special thank you to @citizentaleo for taking me there, I would’ve otherwise been lost in the French mountains lol, thank you!

Maison Robespierre (Arras)

You can visit Robespierre’s residence in Arras. It is possible to visit the inside, but it has a very specific and short opening hours.

I wasn’t able to go in since I was only in Arras for a few hours….But I got to attend a conference by Hervé Leuwers aaa (He is very sweet and I learned quite few new things from the presentation, but thats post for another day)

Robespierre metro stop (Paris suburb)

There is in fact, a Robespierre metro station on line 9! Not much beyond name but at least some credit to him! Alas it is not exactly within Paris and just on the outskirt. (Oh and there is also Voltaire)

Cordeliers club (Paris)

I dont have much information on what happened to the original location of the Cordeliers club and how it was modified, but the location is part of the sorbonne campus now i believe. I'd be very curious if anyone knows more information on this.

Place de la Bastille (Paris)

The Bastille is of course not there anymore, but the ground around the square and including the metro stations near by have traces/marks of where the old prison would have stood.

(and yea the picture was taken during a manif)

Pavillon de flore (Paris)

The pavillon attached to the Louvre and next to the Pont Royale is the Pavillon de Flore, which is where the Committee de Salut Publique worked.

Jacobin club (Paris) Alas the original convent in which the Jacobin gathered is no more and replaced by a commercial centre instead (Passage de Jacobins) . There is a sign however recognizing the place for what it was.

Place de la Concorde (Paris) Originally Place de la Révolution, there is a plaque remembering the executions that took place here near the obelisk.

Maison SJ (Blérancourt) I have not been to Saint-Just's house yet, because it is very hard to commute there without a car. But it certainly is still there and (I believe) maintained by the Saint-Just Association.

Catacombs (Paris) According to wikipedia....The bone remains of many revolutionaries buried in Cimitière Errancis (which has a plaque indicating it in the 8th arrondissement, according to wikipedia) are transferred to the catacombs, including Robespierre, Danton, etc. The catacomb is roughly organized chronologically but there is obviously no sign indicating which bone it actually is.

Cluny La Sorbonne station (Paris) It is on metro line 10 and the waiting tunnel is decorated with signatures of prominent French figures. It doesn't have any actual frev artifacts, but it looks cool and you can spot Robespierre, Danton, and Camille Desmoulins' signatures on the ceiling.

Louis le Grand (Paris) The school that Robespierre attended is still under the same name and still in use as a school! (i've reached the image maximum alas i cannot add more images...)

And that is all I can think of so far! There is surely a lot more that are out there (including outside of France). Once again, please feel free to mention if you know more frev landmarks that I missed out on. And to whoever happens to be travelling I hope you find this list helpful to start with.

[enlitment]

Okay, this is it, this is the potentially controversial post - Marie Antoinette-related snapshots from Paris

I didn't go out of my way to see places/things related to her but when you visit Versailles/Louvre, traces of her will be there

1. A painting of Marie Antoinette being led to the execution site

(I can't believe I haven't seen it before! I really like it - you can see each one of those soldiers watching her intensely. It also doesn't infantilise her. Unlike a lot of frev-related media, she looks about the right age here (37). The sign next to it even made a comment how the painter was obviously sympathetic to her – I think so too and I think it's great that they mentioned it!)

2. Marie Antoinette's 'model village' in Versailles/Trianon

Okay, I don't know why I expected it to be much smaller and more subtle after seeing everything else in Versailles but I was still surprised - it's huge irl. It's obviously awful that someone would be play-acting a simple farmer girl while people in actual villages were on the edge of starvation. But in simpler times, I would say that the contrast between the artificial life at the court full of rigid rules and the desire to flee to an (idealised version of) simple rural life is really interesting, philosophically speaking. Makes me wonder if Marie read Jean Jacques Rousseau.

3. A tea set and a bust of Marie Antoinette displayed in Louvre

Nothing much to say here I'm afraid. It looks really nice? There was a huge collection of things belonging to her in Louvre.

Bonus/& more thoughts under read more!

Baby goats at MA's model village in Trianon! (My friend unironically thought this was the best part of Versailles)

I also rewatched/made my friends watch LRF (I know, I know, but it's still arguably the most approachable film about frev. It's also free in Czech on YouTube, that was a significant factor as well) and we agreed that we didn't hate how she is portrayed there?

It's obviously not historically accurate but Jane Seymour's character is one of the best female characters in the movie imo. She is at least given a voice and is portrayed as quite politically savvy (e. g. her meeting with Mirabeau).

Being from CZ, we would all learn at school about her mother. She was the only woman in our history who ruled the empire and she was a very skillful politician - I honestly think HOTD's Rhaenyra may have been at least partially inspired by her war of succession.

It made me (us) wonder if it's not possible that some of those traits could have been passed onto her daughter.

I would actually be more okay with it if Marie Antoinette was portrayed as scheming and uncaring rather than consistently being depicted as an innocent victim who had no idea what was going on at any point.

Highly recommend this post for further reading! ->

[nigrit]

This might be a bit controversial but I’m just going to leave it here for discussion. Of all the amazing women from the Enlightenment / Frev, the Olympic Committee chose her (wherefore the proto-republican philosopher, Sophie de Grouchy or scientific pedagogue and philosopher, Emilie de Chatelet?! @enlitment). Or perhaps the dashing de Merincourt, industrious de Kéralio, ambitious Roland, activist Etta Palm d’Aelders, or (Romantic) intellectual, de Stael?

Then they bigged her up beyond parody, describing her as a femme politique (non! No known participation in any clubs or salons) and a campaigner for women’s rights (non again; here de Grouchy would be closer to the mark with her joint pamphlet with Condorcet, Cité des femmes etc.) De Gouges’ main output was plays rather than politics.

Yes, she wrote the witty rejoinder to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, but it was one of many pamphlets she self-published, and sandwiched between a dedication to the Queen and a complaint about being ripped off by a cabby driver.

she promoted the right to divorce (as did some men), rights for bastard children, a maternity hospital and novel proposals for raising public funds. other pamphlets were complaints about being ignored, suggestions for improving public morals (society women as culpable as ‘public’ women (ie prostitutes)), and attacks on the radicalism represented by Marat, the Jacobins and/or Robespierre.

As far as I know, she did not protest against the active/passive citizen distinction.

When the Amis des Noirs pressure group started to gain traction and social acceptance (Condorcet, Brissot and Lafayette were leading members), she rewrote her play on the Esclavage des Negres in 1788 to make it more political, with a preface urging recognition for the rights of ‘hommes Negres’, suggesting they would be happy to continue working the fields as free men. The main reason it wasn’t performed was not its subject matter but because she had previously tried to pull (social) rank on the Comédie-francaise to get her plays to the front of the queue, and had a massive bust-up with its director.

Don’t get me wrong, she was often a delightful and witty writer but also markedly eccentric and very much her own woman in a world of her own. Other women played far more prominent roles in trying to secure real change and better opportunities.

Probably the single greatest manifesto for improvements in women’s condition (but not the vote, or at least not yet), imho was Mary Wollstonecraft’s powerful appeal for equality in education (and to stop treating women like vain, simpering idiots defined by nature’s gifts - I’m looking at you JJ!). Talleyrand and the NA had proposed universal education only up to nine for girls.

PS she was also made a poster ‘girl’ for the Front Populaire with the slogan, ‘Gouges-toi’ (Bouge-toi), Which is actually pretty good!

PPS as for those headless Marie-Antoinettes in red, singing about Liberté along the Conciergerie, wow, just wow!

[azzrael99]

Sorry to bother you, how can I draw realistic paintings about frev?😢

Thanks for the question!! (I love answering he he)

I'm sorry for being late in answering. I wanted to make it as detailed as possible (how I usually do it step by step), and hope it can be useful and helpful as a tutorial, it doesn't mean it's the best method, you can always do what suits you better.

First of all, I take as reference a lot of images of the historical character that I am going to draw. In the case of Robespierre, there is a lot of documentation and images of how he looked like. Even Deseine's bust help me a lot.

(Thanks @silver-whistle and @monimarat for this photographies❤️)

Thanks @perfectlysweatypanda ❤️

*I always try to make the character as realistic as possible

Second, I look at the features which are similar in every image I have consulted.  There are always patterns which are repeated. Even, if the artists of that time painted him in different ways (it often happens with DTIYS currently)

For example, the most noticeable features would be:

-the shape of the nose

-The shape of the jaw, square and angular

-the shape and position of the eyes (a little almond-shaped *with a feline look)

-the lips in almost all images are thin and straight

-broad and clear forehead with some wrinkles

-Square head (fun fact: typical for Earth zodiac signs)

-rounded eyebrows…

Then I look at the written descriptions of the people of that time and their contemporaries. I try to make sure they are reliable sources.

The ones, which are repeated the most, are not always the most accurate (be careful with it, look closely the images you have previously searched for to get it)

Then I usually make the baselines of the bone structure that it usually has:

I determine the position of the eyes, mouth and nose of the face with the basic lines:

Second, searching the clothes and suits of that time:

As explained above, look at a lot of images and references about how the clothes were.

Written references about how our character used to wear. Maxime’s shake: dark suits (black) earthy colours or basic (Supreme Being celebration was an exception). It seems they like stripes on suits.

🤩Tip! You can look at the suits on frev films.

They have usually got a lot of information out it and you can watch different angles to draw it better.

Some examples:

La révolution française Robert Enrico

Un peuple et son roi Pierre Schoeller

Danton 1983

You can also draw accessories (I’ve just realised I forgot to draw the pocket watch 😱⏱️)

Before I search for a pose that I like and it could fit with the character (or I do it on Clip, with the 3D movement dolls)

Important!!! (^.^)

Look at the side of the historical character. In the case of Robespierre measures 1.6 meters.

As a plus, if you want to draw a background, look at different set ups of that time, such as Duplay's house, or even on video games like Assassins Unity. They help me a lot.

I think you can draw realistic frev characters images with these steps.😉

I want to watch them.💖💖💖💖🎨🎨🎨

I hope it helps you and if you have any questions I would be pleased to answer.🤩

I like when people ask me.😁

[lanterne]

obsessed with this jean negroni looking robespierre

[followbackon4sa]

Was looking at the article about the nematodes frozen for 42,000 years and now I'm filing for damages against the website because they had the gall to foist the wack, busted and most accursed recreation of Robespierre ever onto me. Absolutely ruined my day. Fuck this.

[empirearchives]

Some descriptions of Napoleon’s appearance during his 1797 trip to Switzerland:

This is the time in Napoleon’s life when everyone described him as being extraordinarily thin, to the point of almost looking frail.

Here is a bust of Napoleon from 1798, by Louis-Simon Boizot:

Quotes: (source)

Bust: (source)

[mali-umkin]

We had such a wonderful day basically just complaining to various people, sun bathing while walking actively and breaking into a high school!!

We stood in front of an important wooden door talking about pigeons

We sat complaining to the ARBR on the doorstep of Max's house

And talked about travelling in time while the people working at the Hôtel Dubois de Fosseux looked at us curiously

Also we NEVER found the door to the Palais de Justice so we supposed Maximilien used to get in by climbing the windows

So a very very sympathetic day with an awfully clever montagnarde

Today I hung out with the amazing @mali-umkin in Arras and we filled and co-signed a complaint to the tourism office for their mistreatment of Robespierre, called the A.R.B.R to see if someone could show us the house even if it was officially closed (no luck, they were busy having a meeting and also aggravated by the way the municipality is treating them and Robespierre).

And then we broke into the Robespierre high-school to see the ugly bust in the courtyard (since we couldn't see the ugly bust in the house, or the ugly bust in the town hall). Well, @mali-umkin the brave broke into the school...then I followed 😅.

We got "caught" but luckily the people from the school were robespierrists and proud of their ugly bust!!!

[mali-umkin]

Corbière was iconic for this

[revolutionarywig]

Hi! Just wondering how you approached styling Robespierre, as in, how do you balance historical accuracy and stylization? I’m trying to stylize my favorite historical figure and I’m struggling so much with this aspect ahhh. And hope you have a great day and tysm!

Hi! Sorry for the delay and thanks for the ask!

I think the same principle of character design in general applies to drawing historical characters as well. They all trace back to finding what is unique about that historical character's features and making the drawing immediately recognizable. Another thing is there is a difference between stylization vs. design. Your drawing can either be hyperrealistic or extremely stylized and the character can still be instantly recognizable. On the other hand, if for example, you change the nose shape, it means you are changing the design and that can make the figure unidentifiable.

(To be fair I think I yassify Robespierre a bit much lol, maybe less so with other frev figures but specifically with Robespierre, I tend to take a bit more creative liberty)

I think what might help is to start from written descriptions only. If your historical figure has been described a lot then you might see a pattern emerging, making it a key trait to the design.

For example, Robespierre....

-wig and green glasses TM -leftover marks of smallpox from young age -"cat-like" or "flat" features (so this means i would go with more square face shapes than long face) -green iris Then the next step would be to go over ideally contemporary portraits (or photos) of the figure you are drawing. It might also help you find commonality to what makes the historical figure distinct.

For example, Robespierre again....

(forgive me for the weird drawover.....)

I would say in most of his portraits he has a very consistent smooth nose bridge as well as that slight wrinkle on his cheek occasionally. Squarish face in most portraits (the deseine bust is quite an exception), quite thin eyebrows, double eyelids. And in the side profile the slope of forehead and rounded chin are also quite consistent. So those traits would be the basis and I will try to include all of them whenever I draw him. Other parts can be more flexible. Another thing with bringing more historical feel to the figure is the body silhouette. The way clothes were tailored back in the days are drastically different and that shapes how the body looks as well as how the character moves.

And to wrap up, there is also nothing wrong with yassifying your favourite historical character in the way you usually draw. Nothing wrong with drawing them like the babygirls that they are.