LES FORMES ACERBES The Guillotine at Chambrai etching
1796 32 x 36 cms with details (search)
 
The composition is a dense web of pictorial references to the bloodhsed at Cambrai caused by Joseph Lebon who here bestrides the mangled corpses and drinks the blood of fresh victims. The aristos plead to the Universal Truth (eye) and the representatives of the Rights of Man.
 
 
see the exhibition catalogue La Revolution Francaise et L'Europe XX exposition du Conseil de Europe Grand Palais 1989 Vol 2 (613) My copy of the print offers the information in handwriting that the print was commissioned by Laplante, a lawyer from Dunkirk who edited a newspaper.

Published first on the 13th of May 1796.