In Portrait of Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, Jean-Louis Laneuville, a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, has captured his subject at the moment of his greatest political triumph. As a representative at the National Convention and a member of the radical Committee of Public Safety, he demanded the head of Louis XVI at the show trial of “Citizen Louis Capet” on January 4, 1793. The bottom of the two documents in the painting erroneously lists the year as 1792. The trial actually ended on January 17, 1793, with the death sentence of the king, which the executioner of the French Revolution, Charles- Henri Sanson, carried out by guillotine on January 21, 1793. The painting combines a portrait of an individual and the depiction of a historic moment. It is an expression of the new objective understanding of art during the revolutionary period. In terms of psychological analysis and the precise technique employed, the canvas demonstrates the self-assurance of the person portrayed and of the period. Works of this nature were often used for propaganda purposes.
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