print;
broadside
- Museum number
- 1877,1013.1488-1489
- Title
- Object: Tableaux des Principeaux Evenements de la Vie d'Antonie Francois Desrues...
- Description
-
A broadside on the life and death of the criminal and murderer Antoine François Desrues; with eighteen etchings on two sheets, showing various stages of Desrues' life; with engraved title, and engraved text underneath each image. (n.p.:[1777])
- Production date
- 1777
- Dimensions
-
Height: 394 millimetres (first sheet)
-
Height: 390 millimetres (second sheet)
-
Width: 457 millimetres (first sheet)
-
Width: 461 millimetres (second sheet)
- Curator's comments
- Desrues was born at Chartres in 1745. He went to Paris where he successfully built up a grocery business. In 1773, he gave up his shop, after which he began to have financial problems. In order to obtain a country estate illegally, he invited the owner (Madame de la Mothe) to come to Paris for the transfer of ownership. He poisoned the owner and her son, and forged the receipt for the purchase money. When he tried to obtain possession of the property, the disappearance of Madame de la Mothe and her son aroused suspicion. He was arrested, and after the discovery of the bodies, Desrues was tried, found guilty and condemned to death.
This crime was the subject of a drama, performed in Paris in 1828.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1877
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1877,1013.1488-1489