print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1851,0901.533
- Title
- Object: French democrats surprizing the Royal runaways
- Description
-
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette seated on chairs at Varennes while an armed and ferocious mob invades the room through an open door (left); the approach of an angry crowd is suggested by a sea of heads, above which weapons are raised. The King sits full face, the Queen beside him in profile to the left and on the extreme right. One ruffian presents a blunderbuss at the Queen, another, yelling, threatens the King with a pistol and sabre. A soldier (left) advances with his musket cocked towards the little Dauphin, who has fallen on his back at the King's feet, having apparently been pushed over by the soldier's bayonet. A man wearing only a bonnet rouge and a shirt advances with a dagger in each hand; behind him is a man with a raised hammer in one hand, a broom in the other. 27 June 1791
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1791
- Dimensions
-
Height: 251 millimetres
-
Width: 355 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
News of the flight reached London on the morning of June 25 (in a dispatch from Lord Gower) accompanied by an unsubstantiated report of the capture. Buckingham, 'Courts and Cabinets of George III', ii. 192. Gower, 'Dispatches', ed. O. Browning, p. 96. For the flight see V. Fournel, 'L'Événement de Varennes', 1890; Lenôtre, 'Le Drame de Varennes', 1926. The escape and recapture were 'the whole conversation' of London on 27 June ('London Chronicle', 28 June), but details were not learned till later. See also BMSats 7883, 7884, 7887.
Grego, 'Gillray', p. 129. Wright and Evans, No. 64. De Vinck, No. 3965. Gower, No. 479.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Named in Inscription: French Revolution 1789-1799
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1851,0901.533
