Robespierre Deputy of Artois 1789 Antique Engraving Portrait Le Vachez Framed

An original portrait of Maximilien Robespierre at the very start of his political career, from the Collection générale des portraits de MM. les Députés à l'Assemblée Nationale tenue à Versailles le 4 Mai 1789, published in Paris by Le Vachez 'sous les Colonnades du Palais Royal No. 258'. Signed in the plate Delaplace del. and Coqueret sc. (Pierre-Charles Coqueret).

The oval portrait sits within a ruled frame above a tablet lettered DE ROBESPIERRE, Député d'Artois - the aristocratic-style particle he used in 1789, soon to be dropped. The collection was issued in weekly instalments from 1789 to 1791 and records the deputies of the Estates-General and Constituent Assembly; a later edition appeared around 1810 under a different title, whereas this impression carries the original Le Vachez imprint.

Robespierre sat for Artois in 1789 as an unknown provincial lawyer from Arras. Within five years he had become the dominant figure of the Committee of Public Safety and the face of the Terror, before his own fall and execution on 10 Thermidor, year II (July 1794). Portraits of him from 1789, before his notoriety, are an important record of the man.

Framing and provenance: in an ebonised reeded frame bearing to the reverse the trade label of Samuel Jennings, 16 Duke Street, Manchester Square, London - "To Her Majesty the Queen & the Royal Family, Estab'd 1824". The National Portrait Gallery's directory of British framemakers records Samuel Jennings, Carver, Gilder & Printseller at 16 Duke Street, Manchester Square, London from 1850 to 1885, so this print has been in an English collection since the Victorian period. Offered from a group of these portraits framed by Jennings.

Condition: age-toning and foxing to the paper consistent with age; please see all photographs, which form part of the description. Frame with wear commensurate with age. Hanging wire to the reverse. Not examined out of the frame.

Size: 28 x 22.5 cm framed.

Carefully packed and posted. Please ask if you would like any further photographs or measurements.