09 Works, June 12th. is Pierre Henri Révoil's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #160

Pierre Henri Revoil (French, Lyon 1776–1842 Lyon)

The Tournament, c. 1812

Oil on canvas

H. 133.5; L. 174.3cm

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Pierre Révoil aimed to create a detailed reconstruction of a mediaeval tournament. He chose to depict a jousting tournament which took place in Rennes in 1337, which was famous for the participation of the young Bertrand Duguesclin in anonymous armour, despite his father prohibiting it. The painter chose the moment at which the last man to fall manages to raise the victor's visor to reveal his identity. The herald in the foreground calls out the victory signal; in the background, one of the four judges brandishes a silver swan, the trophy for the jousting contest. More on this painting

Bertrand du Guesclin (Breton: Beltram Gwesklin; c. 1320 – 13 July 1380), nicknamed "The Eagle of Brittany" or "The Black Dog of Brocéliande", was a Breton knight and an important military commander on the French side during the Hundred Years' War. From 1370 to his death, he was Constable of France for King Charles V. Well known for his Fabian strategy, he took part in six pitched battles and won the four in which he held command. More on Bertrand Duguesclin

Pierre Henri Révoil (12 June 1776, in Lyon – 19 March 1842, in Paris) was a French painter in the troubadour style.

His father was a furrier. Although he was needed at home, his family allowed him to receive a proper education. He first studied art at the École centrale in Lyon, under the direction of Donat Nonnotte. In 1793, increasing poverty forced his family to send him to work with a manufacturer of patriotic wallpapers. Two years later, he managed to find a place at the studios of Jacques-Louis David at the École des Beaux-arts.

Pierre Henri Revoil (French, Lyon 1776–1842 Lyon)

Joan of Arc Imprisoned in Rouen, c. 1819

Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and wash on two sheets of laid paper, mounted together on a sheet of laid paper

18 7/8 x 26 7/8 in. (48 x 68.2 cm.)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Revoil was a leading proponent of the Troubadour style, which favored historicizing subjects. This highly finished sheet is a study for Revoil's painting Joan of Arc in Prison (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen) (See below), exhibited at the Salon of 1819. The composition owes a debt to David's Neoclassical manner in its planar arrangement and legible poses, but Revoil also clearly delighted in rendering details of medieval architecture and costume. More on this painting

Pierre Révoil  (1776–1842)

Jeanne d’Arc prisonnière à Rouen, c. 1819

Oil on canvas

Height: 137 cm (53.9 in); Width: 174.5 cm (68.7 in)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

‘I am certain that these English will put me to death, thinking, after I am gone, to gain the Kingdom of France. But were they a hundred thousand gluttons more than they are at present, they would not possesses the kingdom,' says Joan of Arc, defying the traitor Jean de Luxembourg. 'The Earl of Stafford, indignant, half unsheathed his dagger, but the Earl of Warwick, seizing his arm, prevented the execution of his purpose.’ In her gloomy prison tower, she stands up to the Burgundians and the English who have come to see her in the presence of her jailer and his five brigand guards.

A concern for historical accuracy (the torn garment hem, raggedy sheet, straw, shackles, crust of bread, pitcher, broken bottles and pointed shoes) is combined with the simple symbolism of the innocent girl with the white panache, dressed in royalist colours, rising up in the light before a central column. This work, painted in a restricted palette of cool colours, belongs to the 'troubadour" genre – halfway between story and history – and sets out to move viewers through the power of virtue. More on this painting

Initially, he found himself fascinated by Greek vase paintings and found some notoriety for his scenes of the Revolution. He also did many large-scale religious paintings, but soon focused almost exclusively on historical scenes from the Middle Ages, in what would later be somewhat derisively called the "Troubadour Style".

Pierre Révoil  (1776–1842)

La Convalescence de Bayard/ The Convalescence of Bayard, c. 1817

Oil on canvas

Height: 135 cm (53.1 in); Width: 178 cm (70 in)

Louvre Museum 

Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (c. 1476 – 30 April 1524) was a French knight at the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, generally known as the Chevalier de Bayard. Throughout the centuries since his death, he has been known as "the knight without fear and beyond reproach". 

In 1502 Bayard was wounded at Canossa. More on Bayard

Pierre Révoil  (1776–1842)

René d'Anjou at Palamède de Forbin, c. 1820

Oil on canvas

Private collection

René of Anjou (Italian: Renato; Occitan: Rainièr; Catalan: Renat; 1409–1480) was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples as René I from 1435 to 1442 (then deposed as the preceding dynasty was restored to power). Having spent his last years in Aix-en-Provence, he is known in France as the Good King René. More on René of Anjou

The painting was commissioned in 1820 by Count Auguste de Forbin, the director of the royal museums and a friend of the artist. Forbin was particularly interested in this subject because King René's host, Palamède, was his ancestor.

King René (King of Sicily and cousin of French King Charles VI) traveling through his estates in Provence, spent the night in the château de La Barben. In the morning, before leaving his hosts, he testified that he was satisfied with their reception and traced on the door of the vestibule his portrait. Palamède threw himself at the feet of the King to thank him for this sign of favor. More on this painting

Pierre Révoil  (1776–1842)

Mary, Queen of Scots, Separated from Her Faithfuls, c. 1822

Oil on canvas

Height: 57 cm (22.4 in); Width: 70 cm (27.5 in)

Private collection

Mary Stuart's tragic life and courageous death held a particular fascination for educated French society during the Bourbon Restoration. Her devotion to her Catholic faith and a series of unwise alliances resulted in her imprisonment, and, ultimately, execution in 1587 on the orders of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England. The poignant history and romantic drama of Mary's life and death were utilized to recall the execution of another Queen, Marie-Antoinette, who for the old aristocracy and members of the Bourbon court had become a symbol of royal martyrdom.

Révoil's painting depicts the moment when Mary is being taken to the place of execution and separated from the faithful followers who had shared her imprisonment. More on this painting

In 1802, when Napoleon, laid the foundation stones for the Place Bellecour, Révoil celebrated the occasion with a large allegorical drawing, "Napoleon Rebuilding the Town of Lyon", which became the basis for a painting exhibited at the Salon in 1804. Three years later, he was named a Professor in the École des beaux-arts at the palais Saint-Pierre (now the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon).

By 1811 he had amassed a huge collection of Medieval armor, chests, vases, wall hangings, paintings and manuscripts. This personal museum was used as a teaching tool for his students at the École. By this time, it was also quite famous and was described in detail for the Magasin encyclopédique by Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison. He also wrote Medieval-style chansons, some of which became popular in the Lyon region.

Pierre Révoil  (1776–1842) 

François 1er armant chevalier son petit-fils François II/ François I knighting his grandson François II, c. 1824

Oil on canvas

Height: 140 cm (55.1 in); Width: 180 cm (70.8 in)

Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence 

Francis I "le Roi Chevalier" (12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed Louis XII, who died without a son.

A prodigious patron of the arts, he promoted the emergent French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists to work for him, including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the Mona Lisa with him, which Francis had acquired. Francis' reign saw important cultural changes with the growth of central power in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, and the beginning of French exploration of the New World. Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire. More on Francis I

When the First Empire fell, he rallied to the cause of the Restoration and destroyed his painting of Napoleon. The following year, he married the eighteen-year-old daughter of a cousin and moved to Provence in 1818. He returned to Lyon in 1823 and served as Director of the École until 1830. Some of his best-known students there were Claude Bonnefond, Hippolyte Flandrin and Victor Orsel. In 1828, he donated his collection to the Louvre and had just finished transferring it to Paris when the July Revolution broke out. This put an end to his career and he left for Provence again, never to return to Lyon. Years later, alone and penniless, he moved into a loft on the Rue de Seine in Paris, where he died.

Pierre-Henri Revoil

The coronation of the Duke of Burgundy, c. 1840

Oil on canvas

45 x 58in (114 x 147.5cm)

Private collection

Duke of Burgundy was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Habsburg sovereigns of the Low Countries (1482–1556).

The Duchy of Burgundy was a small portion of the traditional lands of the Burgundians west of the river Saône which, in 843, was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks. Under the Ancien Régime, the Duke of Burgundy was the premier lay peer of the kingdom of France. Beginning with Robert II of France, the title was held by the Capetians, the French royal family. It was granted to Robert's younger son, Robert, who founded the House of Burgundy. When the senior line of the House of Burgundy became extinct, it was inherited by John II of France through proximity of blood. John granted the duchy to his younger son, Philip the Bold. The Valois Dukes of Burgundy gradually ruled over a vast complex of territories known as the Burgundian State, and became dangerous rivals to the senior line of the House of Valois. More on Duchy of Burgundy

Pierre Révoil  (1776–1842)

Philip Augustus raising the oriflamme on 24 June 1190, c. 1841

Oil on canvas

71 × 79 cm (27.9 × 31.1 in)

Palace of Versailles

Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus, was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself "King of France". The son of King Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed Dieudonné (God-given) because he was a first son and born late in his father's life. Philip was given the epithet "Augustus" by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably. More on Philip Augustus

The Oriflamme was the battle standard of the King of France in the Middle Ages. It was originally the sacred banner of the Abbey of St. Denis, a monastery near Paris. When the oriflamme was raised in battle by the French royalty during the Middle Ages, most notably during the Hundred Years War, no prisoners were to be taken until it was lowered. Through this tactic they hoped to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, especially the nobles, who could usually expect to be taken alive for ransom during such military encounters, More on Oriflamme

His sister was the poet Louise Colet and his son, Henri Révoil, was a well-known architect who restored many churches and other public buildings. More on Pierre Henri Révoil

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