#légende noire

légende noire: archive project

In the immediate aftermath of the events of Thermidor, both the actors and spectators of these events sought to give meaning to what had just happened ; à chaud, a new imaginary was taking shape, centred around the person of Robespierre: his légende noire, which would impose itself over the next decades, slowly began to emerge in numerous speeches, proclamations, pamphlets etc. This “black legend”, which drew on the tropes and motifs that had characterised earlier attacks on Robespierre, would later acquire some degree of coherence, but at the time of its birth, it was still widely heterogeneous and, at times, even contradictory.

In the course of this research project, I have compiled some of the most influential speeches, writings and images that were published during or immediately after the events of 9 / 10 Thermidor, and which, in some cases, came to shape Robespierre’s légende noire as we know it today.

protocols, speeches, reports & proclamations

• Session of 9 Thermidor at the National Convention
  
• Report on the conspiracy against the national representation, plotted by Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, Lebas &c. (9 Thermidor)
  
• Proclamation of the National Convention (9 Thermidor)
  
• Léonard Bourdon’s intervention at the Convention (10 Thermidor)
  
• Report of the Committees of Public Safety & General Security on the “conspiracy of Robespierre etc.” (10 Thermidor)
  
• Barère, au nom du comité de salut public (11 Thermidor)
  
• Barère’s report on the reorganisation of the Committees (14 Thermidor)
  
• Barras’ speech on the journéesof Thermidor (27 Thermidor)
  

pamphlets & other writings

• Robespierre’s Tail (Méhée de La Touche)
  
• Robespierre peint par lui-même […] (Laurent Lecointre)
  
• On Robespierre’s conspiracy(Rouget de Lisle)
  
• Véritable portrait de Catilina Robespierre (Jean Joseph Dussault)
  
• Portrait of Robespierre (Merlin de Thionville)
• La journée du 9 thermidor (André Pépin Bellement)
  
• On the fall of Robespierre and his accomplices (C. Dejean)
  
• Le front de Robespierre, et de sa clique […] (Baraly)
• Execrable Portraits of the traitor Robespierre […] (J. J. Dussault)
  
• Horrible conspiration formée, pour porter Robespierre à la royauté(Anonymous)
  
• Facts collected in the last moments of Robespierre and of his faction, from 9 to 10 Thermidor (Anonymous)
  
• Vie secrette, politique et curieuse de M. J. Maximilien Robespierre […] (L. Duperron)
  
• Fréron’s notes on Robespierre

engravings & medallions

• IX Thermidor Year II (Charles Monnet)
  
• Thermidorian medallion from Lyon (Anonymous)
• Act of Justice from 9 to 10 Thermidor (Viller)
  
• M. J. Maximilien Robespierre: nicknamed the modern Catiline, executed on 10 Thermidor Year 2 of the Republic (Anonymous)
  
• The Triumvir Robespierre (Jean Joseph François Tassaert)
  
• Robespierre guillotining the executor (Anonymous)
  
• Triumphant Equality or The Punished Triumvirate (Villeneuve)
  
• The Government of Robespierre (Anonymous)
• The French People, or Robespierre’s System (A. Chataignier)

What do you think, citizens? Feel free to add things!

During my research for this project, I greatly relied on Robespierre: la fabrication d'un mythe (Belissa / Bosc) and on Jolène Audrey Bureau’s Robespierre meurt longtemps, as well as on Hippolyte Buffenoir’s extensive study Les portraits de Robespierre. I also want to thank @montagnarde1793and@valeria-lagrimas for their generous help and advice!