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Portrait said to represent Collot d’Herbois, approx. 1780 (source)

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“Nothing is more absurd than the idea of “Jacobinism” as an authoritarian and meddlesome Paris dictatorship,’ Hazan writes. ‘That is an interpretation handed down by Thermidor, as lasting as hatred of the Revolution.’ Hazan goes on to denounce ‘the heirs of the Thermidorians’ who he accuses of rewriting history in a concerted effort to besmirch the reputations of Marat, Danton, Saint-Just and above all Robespierre. Tackling Robespierre’s enduring reputation as ‘a blood-drenched tyrant’, Hazan writes that as ‘as far as “tyrant” goes, Robespierre was never a dictator. All the major decisions of the Committee of Public Safety were taken collectively. As for “blood-drenched”, there are many instances when Robespierre intervened to save lives.’ The French Revolution ushered in not only a revolution of rolling heads but of talking ones too. ‘Speech-making was a new political instrument,’ writes Eric Hazan. ‘The King of France never gave speeches and neither did his ministers.’ Indeed Louis XVI’s lack of eloquence, or more specifically his egregious line of sentimental claptrap, had fatal repercussions for him in the court of public opinion.”

— from the “Spectator”’s review on Eric Hazan’s “A People’s History of the French Revolution” 

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saint-just designs that aren't necessarily historically accurate clothing wise I just enjoy drawing him with that waist thing

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archangel of terror

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Attempt 1 at drawing the skrunkly

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Illustrations from "Histoire des Montagnards" by Alphonse Esquiros (1849).

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The world would be so much better if the average person read letters/memoirs/diaries from 100+ years ago. Because when you do, it becomes so painfully obvious how people everywhere have always been autistic/gay/trans/bi/adhd/genderqueer/kinky/etc, etc

Like painfully obvious to the point that you are physically pained by how stupid someone sounds when they're like "asexuality is the new thing today". Bro, you're the new thing today. You just got here, haven't read shit, and started talking.

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Do you think this is just macho '80s bullshit or are we literally incapable of depicting the real Camille?

From Danton (1983):

Camille IRL:

"Camille Desmoulins crouched in a corner of the prison and wept. He thought of his young wife, whom he must leave in the power of his executioners. He repeated with sobs the sad farewell he had written to his Lucile, on the eve of the trial. 'Horace! Lucile! My Horace! My beloved! What will become of them ?'" (Camille Desmoulins and His Wife)

From La Révolution Française (1989)

That slight sadface you make when you find out your wife is likely to be executed right after you:

(To be fair, he did make a speech a second before this; he did not, however, rip up his prepared speech and throw it in the Tribunal's faces like he did IRL (from The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, a Life) and then refuse to leave the courtroom and have to be dragged out by three soldiers (from Camille Desmoulins and His Wife))

Also from La Révolution Française, Camille riding quietly in the tumbril with another little frowny face like you have when you're about to be guillotined — note the low-cut but fully intact shirt:

Camille IRL:

"Then, wild with rage and despair, Camille tried to break his bonds, and, tearing his shirt to rags, so that his lean shoulder, neck and chest showed through the tatters... 'You are deceived, citizens,' he cried, in hoarse tones.' Citizens, your preservers are being sacrificed! It was I, who, in '89, called you to arms. I raised the first cry of liberty! My crime, my only crime has been pity!'"

"Camille... went to the scaffold absolutely naked down to the waist, his shirt being torn in rags." (Camille Desmoulins and His Wife)

& at the trial of the Girondins...:

"...he threw himself into my arms, in distress and agony of mind : " O my God! my God ! it is I who kill them ! my ' Brissot unveiled.' O my God! this has destroyed them!" The unfortunate Camille, fainting, losing his consciousness, faltered out these words:- "I am going, I am going, I must go out. " (Camille Desmoulins and His Wife)

~~~

I swear to the Supreme Being that I don't just want to see men in agony. But a major part of Camille as a person seems to be his open, visceral — & sometimes contradictory — emotionality. He defends & advocates violence and then is horrified when violence is done. He writes some of the most absolutely jaw-droppingly audacious material that you can imagine writing during the Terror and then kind of apologizes and recants but then argues with Robespierre, who is essentially offering him a choice between his work and his life (The Twelve Who Ruled*). He seems to accept that he's courting death, but he does not go to his death with quiet acceptance in the way that seems to be expected/glorified.

And I just think it's a pity that ~200 years later, filmmakers literally cannot capture him. Like, nobody can let a man have emotions or cry or act in a way that could be interpreted as "cowardice" or "weak". Does any movie or show let Camille actually cry & faint?

If he appeared on screen in 2025, do you think we'd be able to let Camille be Camille? Or would he still be squeezed down into Stoic Man Maybe Frowns a Bit?

~~~

*One day I will ramble about the January 7, 1794 argument in the Jacobin club between Camille & Robespierre because I'm kind of obsessed, but it's definitely a tangent here. I read Le Vieux Cordellier III after reading about Jan 7 and oh my god, the entire time I couldn't help thinking Camille, what are you doing?! My heart kind of breaks thinking about everything from ~December-April of this man's life & what he must've been thinking.

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Break doodle

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' It is infamous ! ' said Lacroix. ' We are judged without being heard,' said another. ' The brigands ! the assassins ! ' ' All deliberation is useless ! ' ' This is not judging ; it is killing ! ' ' Let us be led at once to the scaffold ! '

Thus did the cries of these unhappy men mingle in a confused sound of complaint and insult ; but the judges remained impassible. The President ordered the gendarmes to remove the prisoners.

Then ensued a terrible scene. Danton cast a contemptuous look at his judges, as a last defiance, but Camille clung to his seat, and refused to walk out. Three men laid hold of him, tore him from his place, and literally carried him out. Desmoulins' last cry was an invective.

Camille Desmoulins and His Wife, p. 338-339 (pdf pages 361-362)

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I tried to draw Saint-Just to 9 May, in the end such a rough sketch came out. I like him because it is made on emotions

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plight of being the oldest

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I don’t know why every picture has Saint-Just, He just keeps appearing on my canvas

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