EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE

KüCHLER, Conrad Heinrich: France, 1793, Bronze, 48 mm
Obv:  Bust of Marie Antoinette    MARIA ANTON. AUSTR. FR. ET NAV. REGINA
Below:  NAT. 2 NOV. 1755. NUP. 16 MAY. 1770. COR. 11 JUN. 1775
Rev:  Scene of Marie Antoinette being carted to guillotine. She is seated in a common tumbril, hands tied behind her back. National guard are at rear while a child, hat in hand, dances in front of the cart. The Place Louis XVI, now the Place de la Revolution, is packed with people and the guillotine stands ready. The legend above is taken from Lucan    ALTERA VENIT VICTIMA. (Abbreviated from ‘En altera venit Victima nobilior': (Another Nobler Victim Comes; or The Next One Becomes a Victim).
Exergue:  XVI. OCT. MDCCXCIII.
Ref:  Hennin 360/533;  Jones (French Revolution), Figs. 5 & 18;  Weiss BW166

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), an Austrian princess, was never popular with the French public. (She was once to have exclaimed 'If I was not Queen, one would say that I had an insolent air'). She was often accused of putting Austrian interests ahead of those of her husband's kingdom. Her unpopularity was increased by her extravagant spending, which was often unfairly connected with the grave financial difficulties that beset France in the 1780s. This uncertain position put her in danger in the revolutionary period. This was not helped by her uncompromising stance to even the more moderate revolutionaries and her attempts at collusion with other European powers to try to suppress the insurgents. After the royal family failed to escape in 1791, and monarchy was abolished in 1792, Louis XVI was tried for treason and executed in January 1793. The former queen was tried by the National Assembly and executed on 16 October 1793.

Heinrich Küchler, in partnership with the famous entrepreneur Matthew Boulton, produced this medal as a commercial speculation. Küchler came to work in London in March 1793, producing medals on the fate of Louis XVI, and expanded the cycle of subjects as they occurred. The British public, fascinated by the events in France, eagerly consumed revolutionary memorabilia. The medal was begun in October 1793, presumably days after the event, and issued in March 1794. (from British Museum web site)

LINK to Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Marie Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (from Wikipedia)

LINK to Blog on Marie Antoinette  Versailles and More

LINK to other medals by Kuchler from this series (Bill McKivor)

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