Proces van Marie Antoinette 1793 - 1849

This print of the Trial of Marie Antoinette was made by François Louis Couché in France, sometime around the turn of the 19th century. It depicts the former Queen of France in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal that would condemn her to death by guillotine. Couché’s print is titled “History of the French Revolution.” This framing is significant, because it presents the image as an objective record of the historical event. But, of course, the image is constructed. Visual cues such as Antoinette’s calm demeanor, and the baying crowd who demand her death, construct a particular narrative about the event. How can we trust images that are so clearly staged and propagandistic? As historians, we have to rely on primary source images like this. But we also need to analyze the ways images, and other documentary materials, were produced and consumed. Only then can we understand their relationship to the past.