Portrait of Fénelon 1793

This is Pierre Michel Alix's portrait of Fénelon, made in France, probably around the turn of the 19th century. It’s a print, an image made to be widely circulated, and it presents us with a vision of a prominent clergyman. Fénelon was a figure of the old regime, tutor to the King's grandsons, and later Archbishop of Cambrai. The portrait presents us with a member of the clergy, but perhaps more importantly, it presents us with a recognizable type of learned society. The dress of the clergy is softened by the wig and the colors create a softening of the image that may create an association to the old regime. What are we to make of this image in the context of the French Revolution? Was it a nostalgic image of the way things used to be, and perhaps the way some wished they still were? This is the work of the historian, connecting images to social and institutional contexts. We use sources from the time - newspapers, books, even police records - to put images like this into a broader picture of French society.