21. Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914) after
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Boissy d’Anglas, Président de la Convention, le 1er Prairial, An III (Boissy d’Anglas, President of the Convention, the First of the Month of Prairial Prairial in the Third Year of the Revolutionary Calendar)

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Boissy d’Anglas

Boissy d’Anglas, Président de la Convention, le 1er Prairial, An III (Boissy d’Anglas, President of the Convention, the First of the Month of Prairial Prairial in the Third Year of the Revolutionary Calendar)

Etching and drypoint, 1880, 450 x 565 mm., Béraldi 341 ii/ix, B. N. Inv. 384. Provenance: Henri M. Petiet (this stamp not in Lugt). Superb trial proof of the rare second state (Béraldi states that only four impressions were taken), on laid paper with full margins, signed in ink and annotated "2em Etat." Delacroix's painting, which dates from 1859, shows the melee at the national convention as the bloody head of Féraud, the preceding president, is thrust at Boissy at the end of a pike. There is perhaps no grimmer souvenir in art of the days of the French Revolution, David's Death of Marat looking positively chaste and classical in comparison. Bracquemond worked the plate through nine states, the last few being inscription adjustments, but all the early states are rare. The print was commissioned by the City of Paris.