Witnessing Terror: French Revolutionary Prints, 1792-94 | Museums and Collections

This 2020 exhibition and programme of events asked the questions what does it mean to witness terror? and what role do images play in how we comprehend acts of violence?

The period of the French Revolution known as the “Terror”, which lasted from 1792−94, gave rise to many of the most memorable and dramatic images of this crucial moment in modernity. These images were central to revolutionary attempts to regenerate all aspects of life – from clothing and speech to money and maps, and with the introduction of the Republican Calendar, to remake even time itself. In our contemporary political context, in which “Terror” has taken on a variety of disturbing meanings, and in which the proliferation of images plays an increasingly significant role in how we comprehend acts of political violence, it is ever more important to examine this radical period in French history.

Tracing the tumultuous period from the trial and execution of Louis XVI to the fall of Robespierre, Witnessing Terror included a variety of printed images representing key events and personae. From portraits of revolutionary martyrs to dramatic scenes of Parisian crowds, these prints give us insight into how people understood life during the Terror. As well as a number of caricatures, street scenes, and more overtly artistic prints, the exhibition displayed more everyday objects, such as paper money, well-worn passports and playing cards. Drawing out the contemporary relevance of this revolutionary iconography, Witnessing Terror also showed work by the renowned conceptual artist, poet, and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925−2006) that engages with the long-term legacy of the Terror. Contemporary responses also include new commissions by artists Sean Curran and Rebecca Loweth as well as playright Nicola Baldwin.

About the exhibition

“…cleverly curated…”

Ruth Scurr, “The grisly art of Revolutionary France”, The Spectator magazine, issue March 2020.

This exhibition was part of a programme of ongoing engagement with UCL Art Museum’s unique holdings of prints related to the French Revolution, acquired via the Cultural Gifts Scheme.

Earlier collaborative projects include: Revolution under a King: French Prints, 1789−92 (2016) and Rousseau 300: Nature, Self and State (2012).

It was supported by funds from the British Academy and Arts and Humanities Research Council. Thanks are extended to the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London and The Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Victoria Miro, London/Venice for their loans.

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Terror and Witnessing

The Terror remains a vexed term that has for many become synonymous with the French Revolution, clouded by myths that emerged in the years that followed. A system of political institutions and practices, the Terror was accompanied by new rhetorical and cultural strategies. It did not happen overnight but developed as a tactical response to a series of military crises, rumours, and fears. Images played a crucial role in the operation of Terror, as well as in its subsequent representation. This exhibition considered what it means to witness Terror, then and now. In particular, it features extracts from the recently discovered letters of Catherine-Innocente de Rougé, duchesse d’Elbeuf (1707−94), who maintained a correspondence with an unknown friend throughout the Revolution. Living in her private residence, the Hôtel d’Elbeuf, which was located only metres from government offices during the Terror, the duchesse d’Elbeuf commented freely on the situation in Paris in a way that would have sent her to the guillotine, had her correspondence been found.

The letter series, found among police files in the French national archives by Professor Colin Jones (Queen Mary University of London), is the subject of an ongoing research project of transcription and editing. It is the starting point for a broader discussion of how, in the period of censorship and surveillance under the Terror, individuals strove to maintain freedom of expression and develop a critique of government.

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Resource: The Duchesse d’Elbeuf’s Letters to a Friend, 1788−94. AHRC Research Grant (2018−2020), Principal Investigator: Professor Colin Jones, History Department, Queen Mary University of London.

Contemporary responses

The exhibition featureed an iconic neon text work by Ian Hamilton Finlay created on the occasion of the 200 year anniversary of the French Revolution in 1989. A series of new commissions further explored the themes in the exhibition: Illustrator Sean Curran created a card deck that draws on the portraiture in the museum’s collection of French Revolutionary prints associated with the Terror, and collage artist Rebecca Loweth produced a paper-folding game in response to the paper culture that proliferated during the French Revolution. Both commissions engaged with the use of images during the Terror and could be downloaded and printed at home and played. Playwright Nicola Baldwin and director Saskia Marland collaborated to produce a new short play inspired by the voice of a hitherto unknown witness to the terror which is the subject of new research.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Translation of a Line from Chénier: A Line of Thin Pale Red, 1989

Conceptual artist, sculptor, gardener, and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay returned frequently to the topic of the French Revolution throughout his career. It represented for him a moment of profound change, signalling a moral as well as political leap that heralded advances in secular democracy and social progress. Revolution provided a rich subject; he first received international attention for his guillotine installation A View to the Temple at Documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987 and thereafter the guillotine became one of the most enduring elements of his iconography.

On diplay was Translation of a Line from Chénier: A Line of Thin Pale Red. Finlay refers to André Chénier, a poet who, despite having written several poems in support of the Revolution – including Jeu de Paume, dedicated to Jacques-Louis David, and an ode on the subject of Charlotte Corday – was guillotined on 25 July 1794, just days before the end of the Terror. His brother Marie-Joseph, himself a famous playwright who spoke out against censorship of the theatre, had become a member of the National Convention during the Terror. In this work made in 1989, the bicentennial of the French Revolution, scarlet and white neon form a homage to the executed poet, riffing a quotation from the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. The line of red refers to the guillotine, as well as the red ribbon worn around the necks of those who had lost their loved ones to the blade.

Two of Finlay’s prints, made with Gary Hincks and the Wild Hawthorn Press, were also shown in this exhibition on the entrance wall. These images appropriated Jacques-Louis David’s portraits of revolutionary martyrs, as well as prints of the dying Marat, and Finlay also made versions of them as stone wall pieces.

Translation of a Line from Chénier: A Line of Thin Pale Red was on loan courtesy of the Artist’s Estate and Victoria Miro, London/Venice.

Rebecca Loweth, The Light Gleams and is Gone, 2020

The Light Gleams and is Gone was inspired by the paper culture of the French Revolution – prints, currency, official documents, playing cards, and other ephemera. Particularly during the Terror many images carried hidden messages, revolutionary and counter revolutionary. Loweth gives this heritage a twist drawing on contemporary British-European affairs. The work was an “exhibition-take-away”. It comprised of a stack of A4 sheets with instructions to fold another piece of paper – with image and text, its format akin to that of a banknote. The “notes” were presented in wrapped bundles like wads of cash. Following the guidance, the image transforms and a line from Matthew Arnold’s 1867 poem Dover Beach is revealed.

Users can download the commission to print and make it at home.

Rebecca Loweth‘s practice focuses on the concept of artifice and the aspirations of ideals. Her work can take the form of film, collage and sculpture. Loweth is a tutor at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art where she leads a programme on Collage.

Sean Curran, The French Revolution – The Terror – Who’s Who card deck, 2020

This commission aimed to introduce those who play the game to the figures they depict. The game is a game of trumps, a game of power, suited to the themes explored in the exhibition. The cards could also be used in the exhibition as an education tool as well as in teaching sessions that draw on the Museum’s collection of French Revolutionary Prints. There are twenty cards in the deck.

Sean Curran drew on an earlier portfolio of exhibition interpretation and learning materials produced for museums and English Heritage sites to create this commission, including for Sutton House where he leads the learning programme. His creative practice is informed by an MA in Museum Education and a PhD that focused on Queer Heritage, both awarded by UCL Institute of Education.

Download the card deck.

Nicola Baldwin, The Duchess, 2020

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOilK-874gU

 

The Duchess is a short play written by playwright and Creative Fellow at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies Nicola Baldwin and conceived in collaboration with director Saskia Marland for site specific performance at UCL Art Museum. The play’s protagonist is Innocente-Catherine Rougé, elderly Duchess of Elbeuf, who lived through the French Revolution and Terror in a grand house overlooking the guillotine. As other aristocrats were arrested, executed, or fled Paris, the duchesse d’Elbeuf wrote a stream of letters about her life in the city and these are the subject of a research project led by Professor Colin Jones at Queen Mary University of London. Extracts from these letters ran as a thread through the exhibition.

The Duchess speculates on why the duchesse d’Elbeuf wrote her mysterious letters, and how they – and she – miraculously survived. Set at the height of the Terror in 1793, we enter the Hotel D’Elbeuf to hear the indomitable Duchess’ tips for surviving Revolution. Until her servants Elisabeth and Sylvie stage rebellions of their own.

Baldwin wrote the play as part of her year-long residency with UCL Urban Laboratory and Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS). Her research project “The City Dionysia” explores how 21st century theatre can create new audiences for academic research, with a particular focus on themes of waste, value and social inequality.

You can find out more about the Duchess D’Elbeuf and Professor Colin Jones and Dr Simon Macdonald’s project to translate her letters on the Revolutionary Duchess website.

Contributors and acknowledgements

Witnessing Terror was curated by:

• Professor David Bindman, UCL History of Art
• Professor Colin Jones, History, Queen Mary University of London
• Dr Richard Taws, UCL History of Art

In collaboration with:

• Dr Andrea Fredericksen, Curator, UCL Art Museum
• Dr Nina Pearlman, Head of UCL Art Collections

This exhibition was supported by funds from the British Academy and Arts and Humanities Research Council. Thanks are extended to the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London and The Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Victoria Miro, London/Venice for their loans.

The exhibition was produced in association with Darren Stevens (Exhibition Manager), Lucy Waitt (Curatorial and Collections Assistant) and Mohammed Rahman (Community Engagement and Exhibitions Associate), with Angela Scott (Senior Graphic Designer, UCL Digital Media). Learning and engagement contributions from museum education consultant Jenny Pistella and artists Sean Curran and Rebecca Loweth.

Special thanks are extended to Dr Alex Fairfax-Cholmeley (Senior Lecturer, History, University of Exeter), Dr Simon Macdonald (Research Fellow, School of History, Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Matthew Shaw (Librarian, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Studies, University of London).

This exhibition has benefitted from the research and input of our volunteers and residential placements ─ Lisa Bull (UCL MA Museum Studies), Jackie Lui (UCL History of Art with Material Studies), and Yan Huang (UCL Centre for Digital Humanities) and Rosa Rubner.