Portrait of a Revolutionary

Medium: Oil On Panel
Size: 64.5 x 54.9 cm (25.4 x 21.6 in)
Signed: Signed, dated and inscribed: F. Sablet/Paris 1794

The sitter here would appear to be an officer of the local government at the Municipalité or at the Administation des Sections in the revolutionary government of the Convention, as is suggested by the tricolore scarf beside him. Sablet paid particular attention to the psychological aspect of the portrait: the sitter’s serious demeanor belies the state of the French government at the moment the portrait was painted. The terror which had begun in earnest in 1793 had, after a slight lull, roared to full-force again in the spring of 1794 with the execution of the Hébertistes and Danton. The bloodshed had only begun to abate with the overthrow and death of Robespierre himself on the 10th Thermidor (28th of July.)