Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2746076?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
American Association for Public Opinion Research, Oxford University Press are
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Public Opinion
Quarterly
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Art as National Propaganda
in the French Revolution
BY DAVID L. DOWD
The leaders of the French Revolution con- and sculpture were extensiv
sciously employed all forms of art to mobilize greatest contribution of the
public sentiment in favor of the new France ers to the art of propaganda
and French nationalism. In the absence of mass opment of the pageant o
media, artists were able to reach and influence propagandists can still lea
a large number of the population who were not The author is Assistant P
otherwise accessible to propaganda. Painting at the University of Florid
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 533
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
534 PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I95I
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 535
Such being the case, just how was the official policy receiv
artists? As a matter of fact the initiative frequently came fr
ists themselves and there is no evidence that they though
prostituting their talents by using them for political propag
first place, the virtual disappearance of their usual marke
understandable desire for public commissions to take up the
too, in the eighteenth century it was taken for granted that
should be a patron of the arts on the same munificent sc
6Journal de Paris, No. 89 (March 30, 1777), p. 2.
6Letter to M. Pierre, March 14, I776: F. Engerand, ed., Inventaire des tableaux
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
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
536 PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I95I
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 537
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
538 PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I95I
As the Revolution advanced, this devotion was more and more fre-
quently coupled with the idea of death. Not only must the enemies of
the fatherland be liquidated, but good patriots must be ready if neces-
sary 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.
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 539
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
54o PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I95I
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 commis-
sion 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 in-
fluence? 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 re-
produced 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 influ-
encing 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 di-
rect 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.
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 54I
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
542 PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL I95I
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 543
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
544 PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY, FALL i951
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 re-
ceived 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.
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ART AS NATIONAL PROPAGANDA 545
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
546 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 docu-
ments 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 de-
gree 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, particu-
larly the national festivals, were of very definite value in encouraging
devotion to the new national state created by the French Revolution.
This content downloaded from 182.69.71.185 on Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:24:26 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms