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| Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine - Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825, French) - pen & ink (15 x 10 cm) on 16 Oct 1793 - Musee du Louvre (Paris) |
From an upper window of a cafe, David observed and sketched King Louis XVI's widow, who was paraded on an open tumbrel, very slowly pulled by 2 horses, through spitting and cursing crowds in the streets of Paris, to her execution at Place de la Concorde.
A year's imprisonment had aged the "Rococo Queen" (age 37 only). She was robbed of her false teeth (N.B. angle of her mouth), corset, and wig; her hair was rudely cut short to free her neck for the beheading; her hands were tied to her back. Seated on a wooden plank on the cart, she shut her eyes and mouth. (Ten months earlier, Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine in a curtained royal coach.)
After a brief composure, she met death with great fortitude, dignity and calm. (She even apologized to the executioner for having stepped on his foot accidentally.)
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