The 10th of August, 1792

Gérard's 1795 work The 10th of August, 1792 depicts one of the most violent episodes of the French Revolution: the storming of the Tuileries Palace by Parisian crowds and National Guard fédérés, resulting in the massacre of the Swiss Guard and the suspension of the monarchy. This date marked the effective end of constitutional monarchy in France and opened the path to the First Republic and the Terror. Painted just three years after the event — in 1795, after Thermidor had ended the Terror's worst excesses — Gérard's engagement with this material was politically delicate. The work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art represents a rare attempt by a major neoclassical painter to engage directly with the revolutionary violence that had transformed France, at a moment when the political meaning of that violence was still deeply contested. Gérard had trained under David and navigated the revolutionary years by shifting from classical subjects toward portraiture and history painting that could be read across political divides.

The storm-of-a-royal-palace subject required Gérard to organize chaotic crowd violence within a legible pictorial structure. The challenge of depicting collective violence — multiple figures in extreme emotional and physical states — is resolved through careful organization of figure groups and the use of strong architectural framing. The palette likely deploys the dramatic contrast of smoke, fire, and light that such scenes demanded.