1796 Fête de la Reconnoissance
Géricault Life
“Discour Prononcé A la Fête de la Reconnaissane et des Victoires par le President de l’Administration Municipal de Versailles, le 10 Prarial, l’an IV de la République Française.” (detail), Image courtesy of Gallica.
Géricault 1796
As we have noted, Théodore Géricault was keenly interested in public and private events: horse races, parades, opera, balls. It is easy to assume that pleasure and frivolity attracted vistors above all. The degree to which people in France in 1796 regarded civic festivals as expressions of unity and of national or community pride is impossible to answer. Who has fixed opinions about such matters? Don’t we respond, or fail to respond, to such events on a case by case basis, our feelings changing during these events?
The Fête de la Reconnoissance, a festival fixed in the revolutionary calendar of the 1795 constitution, offered to citizens a call to remember, to be aware, and to reflect on their place in history and their responsiblities to their communities, and themselves. The significance of this festival to historians has all but disappeared in the last century. This article will explore this important festival in detail.