art as national propaganda in the french revolution

American Association for Public Opinion Research

Art as National Propaganda in the French RevolutionAuthor(s): David L. DowdReviewed work(s):Source: The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Autumn, 1951), pp. 532-546Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2746076 .Accessed: 04/04/2012 14:11

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Art as National Propaganda

in the French Revolution

BY DAVID L. DOWD

The leaders of the French Revolution con- and sculpture were extensively used, but the sciously employed all forms of art to mobilize greatest contribution of the revolutionary lead- public sentiment in favor of the new France ers to the art of propaganda lay in their devel- and French nationalism. In the absence of mass opment of the pageant or festival. Modern media, artists were able to reach and influence propagandists can still learn from them. a large number of the population who were not The author is Assistant Professor of History otherwise accessible to propaganda. Painting at the University of Florida.

IT is now generally recognized that official propaganda on a mass scale had its inception during the French Revolution.l In that era, for the first time, the general public was systematically and uninterruptedly bombarded by a modern press, and numerous organized pressure groups were formed to attain specific ends through the manipulation of public opinion. During this dynamic period various propaganda techniques in use today were developed, and in some cases perfected to a degree not

generally recognized. Successive revolutionary governments tried con-

sciously and continuously, with all the means at their disposal, to mould

public opinion and to direct it into channels favorable to their policies and interests.

Nevertheless, no systematic discussion of the various aspects of

revolutionary propaganda during the Revolution has yet appeared.2 During the last few years, however, the publication of historical mono-

graphs and articles on various special aspects such as revolutionary songs, festivals, and the theater, may represent a trend.3 Certainly the session

'This article is a revision of a paper read at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association at Chicago on December 29, 1950. Much of the research upon which it is based was made possible by a grant from the American Philosophical Society.

2 Dowd, David L., Pageant-Master of the Republic: Jacques-Louis David and the French Revo- lution (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1948), deals with the propaganda activities of the leading artist of the period but there is no volume comparable to Robert B. Holtman, Napoleonic Propaganda (Baton Rouge, 1950) which covers all facets of the subject for the succeeding period.

Rogers, Cornwell B., The Spirit of Revolution in 1789: A study of public opinion as revealed in political songs and other popular literature at the beginning of the French Revolution (Prince- ton, 1949); Dowd, op. cit.; Beatrice F. Hyslop, "The Theater during a Crisis: The Parisian Theater during the Reign of Terror," Journal of Modern History, XVII (December, I945), 332-44.

ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA

devoted to "National Propaganda in the French Revolution" by the American Historical Association at its annual meeting in December 1950 indicates a growing interest in this important subject, at least among historians. When a sufficient number of specialized studies have been completed and the results made available in published form it will be possible to write a complete, well-rounded account of French Revo- lutionary propaganda. Such a work would illuminate the origin of many significant aspects of present day political propaganda activities.

One of the most pregnant aspects of this significant problem is the role of artists and artistic media in the propaganda of the Revolution. Virtually untouched until now, this topic should prove to be a reward- ing one for historians, sociologists, political scientists, art historians and public opinion specialists. An account of the activities of the most important artist of the Revolutionary decade has been published, but an overall survey of the other significant aspects of art as propaganda during the French Revolution must still be made. It is the purpose of this article to contribute to the inauguration of such a synthesis by calling attention to some of the more important aspects of the problem on the basis of historical research.

The artistic media considered here will be limited to painting, engraving, sculpture, and the fetes nationales-those vast, spectacular demonstrations in which the arts named, plus architecture, music, poetry, drama, the dance, oratory and fireworks were all effectively com- bined. Rather than attempting to cover the whole decade of the Revo- lution, attention will be confined to the early years, particularly the period between the outbreak of war and the fall of Robespierre. By the term "national propaganda" is meant those organized and consciously contrived movements which aimed at promoting the official cult of la patrie during the period selected. The meaning of that much-abused word "nationalism" has been amplified and clarified by numerous ex- cellent studies which have appeared during the last few decades.4 It is clear that national sentiment assumed variant forms during the Revo- lution and that "nationalism," just as that other chameleon-like term "liberalism," has changed many of its aspects in the one hundred sixty- odd years since the Revolution. Nevertheless, for purposes of definition

'E.g.: C. J. H. Hayes, Essays on Nationalism (New York, 1926), The Historical Evolution of Modern Nationalism (New York, I931); Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism: A study of its origins and background (New York, 1945).

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PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I95I

it may be said that "nationalism" is here used in the sense of a mental condition prevalent among a group of people who believe in their common interests or characteristics, who award supreme loyalty to a nation- state and who regard their own nationality as superior and endowed with a special mission. Needless to say, the fine arts of the period in question had other functions beside propaganda and the revolutionary spirit had other aspects in addition to nationalism.

THE FINE ARTS AS A MEDIUM FOR REACHING THE MASSES

When the destruction of the ancien regime dissolved many of the traditional bonds uniting king and subjects, the revolutionaries of I789 were faced with the immensely difficult problem of re-establishing the psychological unity of France, presumably on some new basis. The growing feeling of national patriotism, then in a relatively early stage of development, seemed to offer a means of consolidating a new collective loyalty. In order to inculcate nationalism, along with other aspects of the revolutionary spirit, of course, various propaganda techniques were perfected and effectively employed. Clubs, newspapers, broadsides, plays, pamphlets, festivals, costume, interior decoration, dances, speeches, songs, pictures, sculptures, monuments and so forth were all used for this purpose.

As we might expect, however, auditory and visual propaganda techniques were found to be particularly successful in appealing effectively to the masses. The Frenchman in the street as compared with the educated bourgeois or aristocrat was likely to be receptive but illiterate; generally he was too poor to afford the relatively expensive club mem- berships, the newspapers, books and brochures, and the theater and con- cert tickets. As in Paris today art exhibitions, public monuments, post- ers, prints exposed for sale, and of course public concerts and street singers exerted a magical attraction for large numbers of Frenchmen. Thus the political leaders emphasized forms of propaganda which were likely to appeal to and be effective with the masses. Almost inevitably, therefore, art and music became particularly significant and important propaganda techniques during the Revolution.

The employment of the fine arts for the purpose of influencing public opinion in favor of the national government did not begin with the Revolution of 1789. Since at least the reign of Louis XIV, the Bour-

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bon monarchy had consciously used them as a means of arousing feel- ings favorable to the regime. By the end of the eighteenth century the painting of history, for example, was regarded as "an emanation of the throne."5 In I776, fat old Count Angiviller, who served as a kind of Minister of Fine Arts to Louis XVI, wrote that the government should encourage art in order "to revive the virtues and patriotic sentiments."6 The philosophes such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau also emphasized in their writings the political and social significance of the arts for the state as well as for the individual. At the beginning of the Revolution, therefore, the idea that art could and should be used to mould and influence public opinion was already widely accepted.7

From the practical point of view it was probably the leaders of the Revolution who did more to promote the arts as a means of stimulating national sentiment than any other single political group until the twen- tieth century. Consciously, and on a large scale, the deputies of the Revo- lutionary assemblies made the use of art which appealed to the masses of the population an important feature of their policy. Mirabeau, Dan- ton, Robespierre, and scores of lesser figures advocated artistic projects from time to time in order (as Danton put it) "to inspire the love of liberty and of the fatherland."8 Illustrative examples and telling quota- tions could be multiplied: the point is simply that groups of all political hues-monarchists and republicans, Girondins and Montagnards, Dan- tonists and Robespierreists-saw clearly the desirability of employing artists as national propagandists.

THE ARTISTS AS REVOLUTIONISTS

Such being the case, just how was the official policy received by the artists? As a matter of fact the initiative frequently came from the artists themselves and there is no evidence that they thought they were prostituting their talents by using them for political propaganda. In the first place, the virtual disappearance of their usual market created an understandable desire for public commissions to take up the slack. Then, too, in the eighteenth century it was taken for granted that the state should be a patron of the arts on the same munificent scale as it had

6Journal de Paris, No. 89 (March 30, 1777), p. 2. 6Letter to M. Pierre, March 14, I776: F. Engerand, ed., Inventaire des tableaux commandes et

achetes par la Direction des Bdtiments du Roi (Paris, I9OI), p. xxix. Dowd, op. cit., pp. 8I-83.

8National Convention, November 26, 1793: Moniteur, no. 68 (8 Frimaire, an II), p. 276.

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been under the monarchy. Moreover-and this seems to have been of the highest significance-the majority of the artists were manifestly sin- cere in their warm loyalty to the nation and in their evident desire to engage in patriotic propaganda for ideological reasons. With the exception of a few of the more aristocratic brethren of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture they appear to have been genuine and en- thusiastic supporters of the new regime.

True, a few artists did emigrate to foreign parts-Marie Antoi- nette's friend and portrayer, Madame Vigee-Lebrun, for instance.9 Sev- eral others were arrested as suspects: Hubert Robert, the well-known painter of romantic ruins, was kept in protective custody for a time.10 Nevertheless, all the real artists who were actually tried by the Revolu- tionary Tribunal were acquitted or given light sentences."1 Of course the term "artist" is here used in the sense of a professional practitioner of the fine arts as contrasted with an "artisan" or craftsman. The single occasion on which artists were sent to the guillotine occurred when a dozen of them were outlawed en masse as Robespierreists and hurried to the scaffold without trial after the Ninth of Thermidor.12 As a group then they were apparently regarded as rather advanced in their revolutionary views and, it might be added, as more intense than most in their patriotic fervor.

This common impression seemed to be confirmed by the fact that so many of the younger artists volunteered for military service and were elected or appointed to various important legislative and administrative positions during the Revolution. For example, no less than four artists sat on the benches of the National Convention,13 and during the Reign

'Marie-Anne Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun (1755-1842) later claimed that she had not really emi- grated but had merely been traveling for professional reasons. On the strength of a petition signed by her fellow artists her name was removed from the list of e'migre's and she was allowed to return to France unpunished. Bibliotheque de l'Institut d'art et d'archeologie de l'Universite de Paris, MSS Doucet, Carton 52, dossier I.

10 Hubert Robert (1733-I808), known as "Robert des Ruines," was incarcerated in the Prison of Saint Pelagie. From contemporary descriptions we learn that he was comfortably lodged and was able to run a flourishing and lucrative china painting business on the side! See C. Gabillot, Hubert Robert et son temps (Paris, 1898), pp. 182-99; Edmond Pilon, "Hubert Robert sous la Terreur," in his Dansons la Carmagnole (3rd ed., Paris, 1939), pp. 152-60.

' Archives Nationales (Paris) [hereafter cited A.N.] Inventaire du Serie W (Papiers du Tribu- nal Revolutionnaire).

'A.N., W 434, dossier 975, piece 9; dossier 976, piece 2; dossier 977, piece 5; dossier 978, pi&ce 5.

'8Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), Gabriel Bouquier (1739-1810), Denis-Guillaume Bourgin (175I-I8Io) and Antoine-Francois Sergent-Marceau (1851-1847).

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of Terror the Mayor of Paris was a sculptor.l4 The personnel of the Paris Commune, of the surveillance committees, of the Revolutionary Tribunal and especially of the various political police agencies included painters, engravers, and sculptors. As is well known the painter Louis David was a member of the Comite de surete generale. He even served for a time as president15 of this security police body which can be com-

pared in certain respects to the Cheka of the Russian Revolution. While more than one set of conclusions probably could be drawn from these facts, it is fairly evident that most artists were happy to place their talents at the disposal of the fatherland.

Their spokesman, Louis David, expressed it this way: Each of us is accountable to the fatherland [la patrie] for the

talents which he has received from nature .... The true patriot ought to seize avidly upon every means of enlightening his fellow citizens and of constantly presenting to their eyes the sublime traits of heroism and of virtue.16

The artist [he said on another occasion] ought to contribute

powerfully to public instruction ... by penetrating the soul... by making a profound impression on the mind.... Thus... the traits of heroism and civic virtue presented to the regard of the people will electrify its soul and will cause to germinate in it all the pas- sions of glory and devotion to the welfare of the fatherland [la patrie].

THE OATH OF THE TENNIS COURT

One of the earliest and certainly one of the best known applications of this philosophy was the same painter's celebrated Oath of the Tennis Court. At one time or another everyone has seen reproductions of this commemorative picture. This work had its inception on the first anni-

versary of that historic event when, at a mass meeting, David offered to paint the patriotic scene in the Jeu de Paume. Shortly thereafter, the Jacobin Club decided to sponsor the project. When completed, the

"Jean-Baptiste Edmond Lescot-Fleuriot. (1751-1794). I'Decree of Committee of General Security of i8 Nivose, Year II [January 7, 1794]: A.N.,

AF II* 294, folio 31. 16Discours prononce a la Convention nationale, le 29 mars 1793 . . . en offrant un tableau de

sa composition representant Michel Lepelletier au lit de mort [Paris, 1793], p. 2. 17National Convention, November 15, 1793: Journal de l'instruction publique, IV, no. 21

[n.d.], pp. 232-37.

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painting was to be engraved and reproductions of it were to be widely distributed for propaganda purposes. The original was to be presented to the National Assembly for the inspiration and edification of the legis- lators. The Assembly, at the suggestion of Mirabeau, sanctioned a public subscription to cover the costs of production. Although the artist ex- pended a great amount of time and energy on his enormous canvas (it measured 26 feet high by 35 feet long) it was never completed.l8 Never- theless, this painting's patriotic theme not only gave its author a brevet de civisme, but it helped to make it possible for David to obtain government subsidies and artistic freedom for his fellow craftsmen. More important from the propaganda point of view, it left an indelible imprint upon public opinion.

The Salon of I79I, at which the preliminary design for the Oath of the Tennis Court was shown, included numerous other paintings of revolutionary and patriotic scenes which exerted a powerful impact upon the national spirit. Similarly, the subsequent Salons of I793 and later years, still under governmental sponsorship but freed from control by the Academy, exhibited an even greater number of propaganda pictures.l9 Moreover, special competitions were launched from time to time by the state for the purpose of awarding commissions for topical paintings to be used in the campaign to mobilize public opinion in behalf of the new regime.20 Scenes of the Revolution vied with neo-classic allegories, as representational and symbolic art forms alike attempted to embody and to inculcate the "patriotic" spirit. The accent was not only upon the civic virtues but above all upon single-minded devotion to la patrie.

SUBJECTS FOR THE PAINTER

As the Revolution advanced, this devotion was more and more frequently coupled with the idea of death. Not only must the enemies of the fatherland be liquidated, but good patriots must be ready if necessary to die in the defense of the Republic. This preoccupation with vio-

'8Dowd, op. cit., pp. 36-41. 19 Collection des livrets des anciennes expositions depuis 1673 jusqu'en I800, ed. Jules M. J.

Guiffrey, 42 vols. (Paris, I869-72), vols. 36-39, passim. 0 E.g.: A.N., AF II 66, plaq. 489, piece 0o; Proces-verbal de la Convention Nationale imprime

par son ordre, 72 vols. (Paris, I792-95), L, 18I-83 [hereafter cited P.V. Conv.]; Recueil des actes du Comite de salut public, ed. F. A. Aulard, 27 vols. (Paris, I889-I933), XIII, 25; Abbe Henri Gregoire, Rapport sur les encouragements . . . seance du I7 vendemiaire l'an III [Paris, I794], P. I9.

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lent death was shown in the countless graphic representations of the cruel and untimely ends of Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, Marat, Pierre Baille, Joseph Barra, Viala, Chalier, and other martyred heroes of the Revolution. Usually these victims were depicted either in sanguinary and realistic poses, or else in idealistic or symbolistic fashion. The greatest painters of the period such as Prud'hon and David were able to combine realism and idealism in an artistic synthesis of immense power. Only the best known example will be mentioned: David's Assassination of Marat.21 This picture shows a scene of violent death in a bath tub-a gaping wound, a blood stained knife, and the ghastly pallor of naked mutilated flesh. But the macabre tableau is transformed by the tech- nical canons of classic art into an immortal masterpiece. In the hands of such a master, brutal realism of subject matter was transmuted into the calm repose of idealized beauty by means of the skillful manipulation of plastic form. At the same time these icons of the new faith delivered a clear message of terrific emotional power: "fight or die, kill or be killed!" The members of the Government were probably not entirely immune from the influence of their own propaganda. With the Assas- sination of Marat and its companion piece the Death of Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau22 literally staring at them from the walls of their meeting place (these paintings were hung on each side of the speaker's desk) it is not too difficult to understand the mood of those members of the Con- vention who dealt so ruthlessly with their enemies. Each could visualize himself dying under the assassin's knife-or the guillotine-if the cause with which he had affiliated himself should falter or fail in the revolutionary struggle for survival.

It is perhaps significant to note that battle scenes were not nearly so common during this period as they were to become under the Directory, the Consulate, and the Empire. Before the advent of Bonaparte the civic element appears to have been more important than the military in the cult of la patrie. It is also rather interesting that many propaganda can-

3 The original is in the Musee royal des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium. 2 After the Restoration the original by David was hidden by Le Peletier's daughter somewhere

in the Chateau of Saint Fargeau (Yonne) and repeated searches have failed to recover it. How- ever, it can be judged from the drawing reproduced in Dowd, op. cit., plate XIII, p. 102 and the descriptions by E. J. Delecluze, Journal .. . 1824-1828, ed. R. Baschet (Paris, I948), p. 326; Dey, "Histoire de Saint Fargeau," Bulletin de la Socilte de l'Yonne, XII (1858), 600; P. A. Coupin, "Notice necrologique sur Jacques-Louis David" in Revue Encyclopedique, XXXIV (April, 1827), 46; A. Lenoir, "David: Souvenirs historiques" in Journal de l'Institut Historique, III (August, 1835), 6.

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vases did not depict contemporary subjects at all but rather represented dramatic incidents from ancient history or allegories from classical mythology. In any case the purpose of the picture was usually clear enough: namely, the inculcation of loyalty to the Nation and to the principles upon which it was established.

Now it was all very well to finance art exhibitions and to commission paintings for public buildings, but how was the populace who did not frequent the Louvre and the Tuileries to be reached? Moreover, was there no way in which the most effective propaganda canvases could be reproduced on a mass scale and widely distributed for maximum influence? In the eighteenth century the obvious answer to this question was to use the relatively popular medium of engraving. As a matter of fact almost all the important propaganda paintings of the day were reproduced from engraved plates and made available to the public in large numbers of copies.23 While private enterprise filled the portfolios of the print sellers with patriotic engravings the government also subsidized similar reproductions of works of art for the avowed purpose of influencing public opinion. These popular prints were offered for sale in great profusion in the print shops of Paris and open air stands along the Seine. They became the typical decorative motif of the public offices and committee chambers, the restaurants and cafes, the club rooms and social halls and the parlors of private homes. Thus they did their daily bit to reinforce national ideals and emotions.

In similar fashion, these popular engravings were employed to direct vitriolic blasts of ridicule against the enemies of the fatherland. The revolutionary leaders turned to the use of cartoons and caricatures which played such an interesting part in politics elsewhere. For instance Eng- lish productions in this genre by James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, and others are familiar. South of the Channel the Committee of Public Safety ordered thousands of similar caricatures in black and white as well as in colors from the pencils and burins of French artists.24 These productions have to be seen to be appreciated-Latin humor is on the earthy side. However, in revolutionary Paris as in Georgian London they told their story cleverly and effectively with forthrightness and

2E.g.: P. V. Conv., VIII, 346; XXV, 221-22; XXVIII, I48; Proces-verbaux de la Commission temporaire des arts, ed. L. Tuetey, 2 vols. (Paris, 1912-18), II, II3.

4 A.N., AF II 66, plaquette 489, for example, contains a whole series of official documents and caricatures concerned, to the number of 66 pieces.

54o


more than a touch of crude obscenity. These caricatures appear to have been among the most popular and successful, although not necessarily the most tasteful and artistic, examples of national propaganda. The various collections of the Departement des Estampes of the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Louvre, and the Musee Carnavalet at Paris and the Brit- ish Museum, to mention only a few repositories, together with the papers of the Committee of Public Instruction and the Committee of Public Safety in the Archives Nationales offer a wealth of illustrative material on the popular prints of the Revolution and the propaganda uses made of them. The evidence clearly shows that the revolutionists varied their propaganda techniques to suit the tastes of the various social classes and that they used appropriate media to appeal to different groups.

THEMES FOR THE SCULPTOR

The skill of the sculptor was also enrolled in the national propaganda campaign. Monuments commemorating military victories, busts and statues of national heroes, symbolic figures representing patriotic virtues, permanent replicas of various temporary statues which had adorned the national festivals-all these were included in the various propaganda projects of the revolutionary government. A conscious ef- fort was made to replace the statues of former kings of France with more suitable symbols which would still stimulate patriotic emotions. A marble statue of the revolutionary martyr Le Peletier de Saint-Far- geau, for example, was planned for the site of the great bronze effigy of Louis XIV in the Place Vendome (where today the figure of Napoleon flaunts itself against the sky in a Roman toga atop a pastiche of Trajan's column).25 Similarly, the famous equestrian monument to Henry IV, demolished by the mob on August ioth, was to be replaced on the Pont Neuf by a colossal statue symbolizing the French People. The latter was to have been a fifty-foot bronze version of the Farnese Hercules leaning on a massive club and balancing figures of Liberty and Equality in one hand.26

Paradoxically it was precisely these vast projects of massive stone and eternal bronze which were from the physical point of view the most

2 Decree of the National Convention, January 25, I793: P. V. Cony., V, 403; Bulletin des Amis de la Verite, no. 27 (January 26), p. I.

6 Decree of the National Convention, I7 Brumaire, Year II [November 7, I793]: Journal des debats et des decrets, no. 415 [n.d.], p. 243.

54I


ephemeral of all the types of artistic propaganda. Art competitions for the best designs for these various proposals were held and often the awards were actually made to successful artists. Nevertheless, there were, in addition to the enormous financial cost, insurmountable war-time shortages of transport and of that critical war material, bronze. Al- though David had said of his popular Hercules that "victory will furnish the bronze,"27 captured cannon had to be turned against the enemy in- stead of being recast as monuments personifying la patrie.

As in the case of painting the subject matter of revolutionary sculpture was generally not battle scenes or successful generals, unless of course the latter (as in the case of Dampierre) were already dead. The revolutionists evidently acted on the theory that glorification of a de- ceased hero could help in strengthening the regime, while honors ren- dered to a living man could be a grave threat to the security of the state. The fear of a dictator flitted like a wraith through the scenes of the Revolution. While unsuccessful generals were quickly sent to the guillotine anyone suspected of dictatorial designs was decapitated with even greater alacrity. Perhaps one reason for the ease with which Robespierre was liquidated by his opponents was the suspicion that he aspired to one man rule.

ALL IN ONE-THE FESTIVAL

The most important and effective of all the artistic media employed for revolutionary propaganda was the festival or pageant. During the Revolution this technique reached the highest development as a method of social control that it was to attain until our own time. The best artists of the period, including David, were employed to combine painting and sculpture with the emotional appeal of colorful pageantry and cere- monial, parades and music, slogans and symbols, poetry and oratory, together with official processions, theatrical programs and pyrotechnic displays. These artists composed immense living frescoes of the Revo- lution which depicted the contemporary ideology and popularized the essential aims of the new regime. For the illiterate masses of France the vivid symbolism of the processions provided magnificent illustrations of the principles of the Revolution. The most original feature of the festivals was the mass participation: the people themselves were active

rRapport fait a la Convention nationale .. 27 brumaire, an 1 ('7 Novembre 1793) [Paris, 1793], p. 8.

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participants as well as interested spectators. Flattered by the feeling of importance thus engendered, the masses tended to identify their interests with those of the new national state. Among the new collective atti- tudes created and the potential loyalties expressed and reinforced through mass participation in the festivals were those we now include in the term "nationalism."

The festivals themselves can be divided into three groups: funeral fetes of Jacobin heroes, religious fetes such as the Fete of the Supreme Being, and national fetes in celebration of republican victories. Typical of this last type of demonstration was the victory festival of December 30, I793. The occasion for the latter was the recapture of Toulon from the royalist rebels and their English allies. When the news of this mili-

tary success reached Paris the Convention decreed that a celebration in honor of the victory at Toulon should be celebrated in all parts of France as a "triumph of the Mountain Party."28 Next day, December 25, David, who was by now functioning regularly as Pageant-Master of the Re- public, presented a plan for a national festival in honor of all the suc- cesses of the Republic and of all the fourteen armies.29 This is a significant point. It was at Toulon that Bonaparte first distinguished himself. Yet the place of honor in the celebration was given not to the victorious

generals, but to the wounded veterans and the ashes of those killed in action, to the civilian officials, and to the workers.

The Parisian celebration took place on December 30.30 At seven o'clock that morning the clear cold air was shattered by a salvo of artil- lery and the program commenced. First came the armed delegates of the forty-eight sections of Paris and of the fourteen armies of the Re- public. Then the triumphal cars full of wounded rolled by, festooned with captured battle flags and escorted by young girls dressed in white. After these followed the deputations of the popular societies with their

parti-colored banners, the members of the National Convention in a body, and various other civil officials. A military escort brought up the rear. Statues of Liberty, bonnets rouges, the national fasces, tricolor banners, a ship representing the Navy, and other symbols figured promi-

8 4 Nivose, an II [December 24, 1793]: P. V. Conv., XXVIII, 84-85; Collection generale des decrets rendus . . . [mai I789-nivose an VIII], ed. F. J. Baudouin, 79 vols. (Paris, I789-99), XXXVIII, 36.

P9 . V. Conv., XXVIII, ioo-oi; David, Rapport fait .. . en memoire des victoires des armees franfaises et notamment 2 l'occasion de la prise de Toulon [Paris, I7931.

8 Sources for descriptions of the fete are listed in Dowd, op. cit., p. II7n.

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nently in the procession. The streets of Paris along the line of march reverberated to the rolling thunder of massed drums and the blare of brass bands, but the sonorous strains of triumphal hymns dominated the ceremonies. Leaving the Tuileries Gardens the cortege made its way along the quays, crossed the Seine, marched to the Hotel des Invalides, and then proceeded to the Champ de Mars where a banquet was given for the wounded veterans.

In the comments of the press attention was called to the marked contrast to the triumphal processions of the old order.31 Civilians were given equal prominence with the military in this republican victory ceremony. Honor was paid not to distinguished officers such as Bona- parte, but to the common soldiers and to the humble sans culottes. The newspapers of the day agreed with the Journal de Perlet and the Revo- lutions de Paris which claimed that the demonstration was "a really magnificent spectacle" and "created a great sensation."32 According to witnesses the enormous crowds which attended the affair were in high spirits and wildly demonstrated their gratitude to the Convention, their enthusiasm for the soldiers and their hatred of the enemy. These ecstatic

press accounts are corroborated by the reports of the secret agents of the Ministry of the Interior. According to journalists and police observers alike "patriotic enthusiasm was the order of the day" and the masses were profoundly moved by the sight of the wounded veterans.33

Thus the glorification of armed might for its own sake was as noticeably lacking at this victory celebration as it was absent from other types of revolutionary art. Military leaders who failed to win battles were sometimes executed, but even the most successful ones received no Roman triumphs nor artistic deification. A military dictator did not succeed in taking over control of France until the end of the revolutionary decade-and then only after seven years of uninterrupted foreign war.

Another obvious feature of this and other festivals of the time was its purely secular character. Under the old regime similar celebrations had not only featured officers over enlisted men and the military over the civilians, but even as late as July 14, I79o, had been accompanied by

"E.g.: Mercure universel, XXXV, no. I025 (December 31, I793), p. I65 and Feuille vil- lageoise, IV, pt. 7, no. 15 (January 9, I794), p. 356.

J82ournal de Perlet, no. 465 (December 31, 1793), p. 246; Revolutions de Paris, no. 220 (I4

Nivose), p. 377. 88Pierre Caron, ed., Paris pendant la Terreur (Paris, I910), I, 79-94, passim.

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ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 545

orthodox religious services. According to the nineteenth century French historian, Alphonse Aulard, the first lay patriotic festival (in the sense that it was unaccompanied by either mass or Te Deum) was that of

August IO, I793.34 Today a simple examination of the contemporary de-

scriptions of the fetes in honor of Voltaire (July ii, i791), of the Cha- teauvieux Regiment (April 15, I792), and of Simonneau (June 3, 1792), to say nothing of the apotheoses of the Jacobin martyrs Le Peletier, La- zowski and Marat early in I793, proves beyond a doubt that Aulard, dis-

tinguished scholar though he was in his day, was mistaken. Without

exception, not a single one of the festivals named was in any way asso- ciated with a mass or a Te Deum.35 The pantheonization of Voltaire in

April, I791, was probably the first but the victory celebration of De-

cember, I793, was certainly not the last of the patriotic civic festivals. Like the others it played an important role in popularizing the cult of la patrie.

PROPAGANDA FOR A NEW NATION

Revolutionary nationalism, then, assumed many of the aspects of a new religion including ceremonials, symbols, sacred texts, saints and

martyrs. True, it was a secular religion which deified the people, their elected representatives and above all the nation. According to the new

dispensation the Republic had no place for ambitious militarists, would- be dictators or politically minded churchmen. Nevertheless, art, tradi-

tionally a powerful tool in the hands of orthodox religious leaders, was included among the more important media for the propagation of the new cult.

Besides mobilizing all national resources for the purpose of beating off the attacks of their enemies, the revolutionists had to restore the

psychological unity of France if the achievements of the Revolution were to be preserved. The institution of the Monarchy and its twin

pillars, the old royal army and the Roman Catholic Church, had col- lapsed under the impact of the events of the revolutionary crisis. Their shattered fragments, still aligned with the reactionary forces which strove to destroy the infant Republic, had to be neutralized by propaganda as well as combated by force. A national government controlled by civilians, a new revolutionary army strictly subordinated to that gov-

8Le Christianisme et la revolution francaise (Paris, 1925), pp. I02-03. 5 See Dowd, op. cit., pp. 48-54, 59-66, 69-74, 99-100oo, 103-04, 105-o06, 115.

PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I951

ernment, and a new secular cult of patriotism and civic virtue were established. The aim of the revolutionists was to create a new nation, a civil and secular Republic of Virtue characterized by liberty, equality, and fraternity, free of military and clerical domination, and based on the rising spirit of nationalism. It is this objective, then, which explains the lack of militarism and the secularism or anti-clericalism which were such marked features of the artistic propaganda of the period.

Even this brief examination of the paintings, engravings, sculpture, and festivals of the revolutionary era together with the relevant documents seems conclusive enough: The art forms named were consciously and successfully used by the various governments of the Revolution for the avowed purpose of stimulating the nascent spirit of nationalism. The numerous speeches and decrees as well as the relatively large sums of money used to subsidize artistic propaganda indicated the high degree of importance attributed to such projects by the political leaders of the period. A more comprehensive and exhaustive examination of the evidence may be necessary for a final judgment of the relative effective- ness of the various artistic media as moulders of public opinion. From the general circumstances and from the representative examples and sources studied here, however, it is evident that all the fine arts, particularly the national festivals, were of very definite value in encouraging devotion to the new national state created by the French Revolution.

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art as national propaganda in the french revolution

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