Jean-Baptiste Denis Marie Lesueur (c. 1749,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

- 6 May 1826, Plailly) was a French painter, to whom is attributed a series of

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

s on the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and the Napoleonic Era.

Life and work

The first official record of the Lesueur family is from 1777, when they owned a house in Paris. Jean-Baptiste lived there with what were probably two brothers and a sister; all unmarried. At the beginning of the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

, he was a member of the Civil Committee for the . The committee's notes refer to him as a painter. In 1794, he was transferred to the Revolutionary Committee of the 5th Arrondissement, but wrote to the Committee of General Security, declining the "promotion". His request was apparently denied, as he was on the

Anti-Jacobin The ''Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner'' was an English newspaper founded by George Canning in 1797 and devoted to opposing the radicalism of the French Revolution. It lasted only a year, but was considered highly influential, and is not to be c ...

proscription list of 1801. He was, however, not among those who supported the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

. It is presumed that he was more of a Girondist. Later, he was an enthusiastic supporter of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

; most likely to ensure that he would be removed from the list. He seems to have stopped painting in 1807, and died almost twenty years later. His sister, Augustine-Geneviève, inherited the house, then passed it on to a cousin. It was eventually purchased by the Bidault de l'Isle fsmily, who found his collection of gouaches, packed in boxes. The collection included 83 sheets of figures, cut and pasted from cardboard, with explanatory notes. Although technically naïve, they are free of anachronisms, attesting to their contemporaneity, and portray women without the usual stereotypes. A similar series of smaller figures, depicting King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

, may have been made by Lesueur's father in the 1770s. It is believed that both sets of figures may have been intended for use in a sort of miniature theatre, as there is considerable wear, and it appears that they were mounted on sticks. The text boxes are highly critical of the Revolution, and were probably added at a later date. They first came to public attention in 1947, when the astronomer and politician, , loaned some to the

Musée Carnavalet The Musée Carnavalet in Paris is dedicated to the history of the city. The museum occupies two neighboring mansions: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. On the advice of Baron Haussmann, the civil servant wh ...

. In 1977, following an inheritance division, 50 of these gouaches entered the Louvre Museum, which deposited them at the Carnavalet. Four others were donated in 1989, ten in 2002 and eleven in 2005. An unknown number may still be in private hands, as some key events of the Revolution are not represented.

Sources

Michel Vovelle Michel Vovelle (6 February 1933 – 6 October 2018) was a French historian who specialised in the French Revolution.James Friguglietti, 'Michel Vovelle and the Revolutionary Succession', ''French Politics and Society'', No. 8 (December 1984), pp. 2 ...

, ''La Révolution française. Images et récits'', vol. III, 1986, p. 282-299 *Claude Langlois, "Révolution en famille ou révolution de la famille? Le témoignage des gouaches de Lesueur", in: ''Annales de démographie historique'', 1987, p. 349-364.
Online
*Philippe de Carbonnières, ''Lesueur. Gouaches révolutionnaires. Collections du Musée Carnavalet'', 2005. *Philippe de Carbonnières, "Nouvelles gouaches révolutionnaires de Jean-Baptiste Lesueur. Entrées au musée Carnavalet (2005-2011)", in: ''Annales historiques de la Révolution française'', 2014, nr. 2, p. 107-134.
Online

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesueur, Jean-Baptiste 1740s births 1826 deaths Year of birth uncertain French artists Artists from Paris Naïve art