Bastille Day

Bastille Day

Bastille Day marks the fall of the military fortress and prison Bastille in 1789, signalling the beginning of the French Revolution. This painting in our fine art collection was recently displayed in ‘The Triumph of Art’ exhibition.

Subjects from the French Revolution were popular with Victorian artists and their sympathies generally lay with the royalists. A basket of broken eggs in the foreground expresses the devastating impact that the loss of the breadwinner will have on the family. The distaff lying on the ground, a spinning tool and a symbol of domesticity, reinforces the message.

The Arrest of a Peasant Royalist, Brittany 1793 (1855), by Frederick Goodall (1822 – 1904).

Posted on 14 July 2021 under Exhibition, General news

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