The Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789 (1790): Art, History and Details

The Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789 (1790) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles Thévenin (French, 1764–1838).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Overtaking the Bastille, a fortress prison and symbol of the monarchy’s power, was a turning point in the French Revolution (1789–99). This etching of the successful rebellion is the only print made by the history painter Charles Thévenin. Typically, artists recorded historical events in paintings that printmakers then engraved with tools called burins, but in this case Thévenin drew his composition directly on the prepared etching plate, capturing a sense of the excitement he claimed to have witnessed firsthand. A newspaper announcement for the etching marveled at its capacity to expediently relate the emotional spirit of the revolutionary event, for which viewers would otherwise have to “await vainly from the cold burin.”

Object facts

• Title: The Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789
• Date: 1790
• Creator attribution: Charles Thévenin (French, 1764–1838)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: Etching
• Dimensions: Sheet: 41.6 x 58.5 cm (16 3/8 x 23 1/16 in.); Image: 36.9 x 58.1 cm (14 1/2 x 22 7/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2015.21

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Trust

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.