A Justice of the Peace 1798 - 1799

Jean François Léonor Mérimée made this print titled 'A Justice of the Peace' using etching and aquatint. It shows a man in a costume with a staff. This image likely relates to the French Revolution and the broader reshaping of French society and its institutions. The figure’s garb combines the old symbols of authority with the new ideals of revolutionary France. The ‘Justice of the Peace’ was a new role created during the Revolution to decentralize the administration of justice, wresting control away from the old aristocratic courts. The costume, with its echoes of previous hierarchies, can be read as a sign of the revolution’s troubled negotiation between the past and the future. To understand this artwork, one must consider the social upheaval of the time and the way this was registered in images of the new institutions. Contemporary pamphlets and newspapers can give us greater insight into the artist’s intentions and the reception of the artwork by its original audience. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.