He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 542

Side Story (20) Suppress the German Revolution with David’s Revolutionary Painting

Revolutions tend to start in politics, but they inevitably impact all areas of society.

-Swish, swish, swish, swish.

A studio filled with countless sketches and unfinished paintings.

It’s not just one painter present.

The man wearing the beret, the symbol of painters, is singular.

However, numerous people are attached, adding color to the unfinished work.

It’s a studio workshop scene of so-called collective production.

It is true that an era is dawning where painters create paintings from start to finish alone.

Still, workshops are also part of the new era’s landscape.

The final supervisor and planner among them is the painter.

He is also the one currently sketching in the center.

Then, the man in the beret threw the charcoal.

“This is really displeasing.”

Then, a young man who was observing the workshop tilted his head and asked.

“Weren’t you going to leave it to the assistants?”

“No, I still have to do the basic sketch. But, it’s just not pleasing. I’m not getting any inspiration.”

“Is it perhaps because of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Mr. David?”

The painter, David, scoffed.

“What are you talking about? Le Brun is not my rival. My rival is Ingres!”

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, the former exclusive painter of the Bourbon royal family of the old era.

At one time, all portraits of Marie Antoinette were Le Brun’s responsibility.

However, she went into exile after the Great Revolution but returned safely when Eugene seized power.

Since then, she has been forming the two pillars of the art world with David, who has been sweeping through France.

However, David is not very impressed with Vigée Le Brun’s pretty paintings.

David, who boasts a huge scale in his work, has a different painter in mind.

Suddenly, David tapped the easel and muttered.

“Ingres is my student, but he is already leading the new era’s painting style. There are many things I need to learn from him.”

“It’s difficult to follow you, teacher. Even now, everyone says you are the best.”

“Haha! Eugene, that’s like your father saying he’s Delacroix.”

At the end of the 18th century, the painting style that dominated the art world was the so-called Rococo style [characterized by ornate detail and lighthearted themes].

Paintings that were pretty, cute, and adorable were the trend.

Even now, Vigée Le Brun is popular with patrons who like the Rococo style.

However, after the Great Revolution, the art world was filled with a romanticism craze.

Fierce, powerful, and rough.

David’s paintings also have a powerful aspect to some extent, but it’s not enough.

Suddenly, David glared at the easel and turned his head.

“By the way, hasn’t your real father still not acknowledged you as his child? Eugene Delacroix?”

David’s disciple and assistant, Eugene Delacroix, frowned.

“My father is Charles-François Delacroix.”

“Still saying that. The Talleyrand family has no heir. You have to be recognized as his child to receive all that wealth, you know?”

“I don’t care about wealth, Teacher.”

Delacroix glared and shouted.

“It’s humiliating just to say that I’m related to such an immoral man!”

Suddenly, the assistants are surprised and stop painting.

Charles Delacroix, a high-ranking diplomat.

Here, the young Delacroix is publicly announced as Charles’ son.

But there’s a problem.

The father, Charles, is impotent.

How can an impotent man impregnate his wife and have a son?

The social circles of Paris sneer and whisper every time they see him.

In fact, everyone knows the answer.

That he is the child born out of wedlock by Talleyrand, a diplomat among diplomats who is close to the Delacroix family.

However, since paternity tests are not yet possible, only Eugene denies it.

“You have to live practically, tsk. Well, maybe that’s why I can’t keep up with Ingres.”

“That’s not true either. Ingres can’t follow your teacher’s magnificent style!”

“Praise is good to hear, but painters have to see through the truth.”

David frowned as he looked back at his painting that he didn’t like.

“Yes, it’s human desire. A painting that unleashes desire. Ingres’ paintings do that.”

Then, someone applauded from outside the studio.

-Clap clap clap!

A young man with a very sly-looking mustache entered and shouted.

“Admirable! This magnificent composition! As expected, Mr. David is the best painter in the French Empire!”

Of course, it’s a painting that David was thinking of tearing up.

“Another flatterer. Who are you?”

“I’m late to introduce myself. My name is Louis-Eugène Cavaignac. I’m the Emperor’s secretary!”

“Ah, the young man who’s been getting a lot of attention these days. Why did such a high-ranking person come all the way here?”

Eugène Cavaignac, the man who would become Prime Minister in the original history, smiled slyly.

“It’s the Emperor’s request. He has sent a petition asking you to complete the Declaration of the Tennis Court [Oath of the Jeu de Paume] that you couldn’t complete before! The commission fee is 3 million francs!”

Exclamations erupted throughout the studio.

Although it is the industrial revolution period when inflation is in full swing, 3 million francs is definitely a huge sum.

Especially if it’s the price of one painting.

David, who is about to receive 3 million francs, frowned.

Because the painting he was commissioned to do is too dangerous.

“Secretary Cavaignac, don’t you know why I couldn’t complete that painting?”

Then Cavaignac shrugged.

“I know. It’s because you were tired of the bloodbath of the Great Revolution.”

“You weren’t even born then, were you? It wasn’t that simple. Dozens of celebrities were beheaded by the guillotine in just one day.”

“However, His Majesty wants it.”

The Emperor’s secretary, Cavaignac, delivered an irresistible order.

“He wants to complete the time of the Great Revolution with the hands of a great painter. So, he wants to distribute the painting as a pamphlet throughout the Empire!”

If it’s an imperial order, there’s no choice.

***

However, David still couldn’t solve the mystery.

“It’s strange. Why is a revolutionary painting needed? In this peaceful era of the Empire?”

It’s a very intense painting.

The coloring is not completely done.

A gray painting close to black and white.

David, a painter who once devoted his entire mind to the revolution, stared at the painting he had abandoned in the past.

Then his disciple Delacroix came and said.

“It’s not peaceful. There was an uprising this summer, and it was barely suppressed, wasn’t it? In the meantime, women got the right to vote.”

“The Emperor is popular with women because he keeps his chastity well. On the other hand, he’s not very popular with men. He has to have affairs and keep mistresses to be worthy of being the monarch of France.”

“Wasn’t there a scandal with the Queen of Naples?”

Delacroix, who is the son of a high-ranking diplomat, is well-informed about rumors, so he asked, and David shook his head.

“Well, I guess it’s a rumor? If it were true, Her Majesty the Empress wouldn’t have returned home.”

Of course, the Empress actually believed the rumor.

Anyway, it is clear that the Emperor is stabilizing the political situation.

But why does he want such an incendiary painting?

David muttered as he looked at the painting in front of him.

“The Oath of the Jeu de Paume.”

Jeu de Paume, English for tennis court.

The first citizens’ assembly gathered at the Royal Tennis Court.

At that time, the King dissolved the Estates-General, and the citizens’ representatives gathered and resolved to create a new citizens’ assembly.

No one would have known that the oath would be stained with blood, lead to internecine conflict, and bring about a brutal reign of terror.

All of the revolutionaries in the painting who were shouting at the time…

Delacroix held his breath and looked at the painting and said.

“It’s a painting that you only sketched a long time ago.”

“It was made into a pamphlet in this state. So it became known to the world, but the world has changed so much since then.”

“Didn’t you originally support the revolution?”

David frowned.

“I did until Robespierre started executing people like slicing bread.”

People say this:

‘David is a painter who flatters power.’

But in his youth, David also had a heart that burned with revolution.

Until the guillotine blade killed his friends.

Then, a rough voice was heard from behind David.

“I almost died at that time too. Hahaha!”

David looked back at his still fat, surviving old friend.

“Count Danton Champagne. It’s been a while.”

“Ha, get rid of that ‘Count’ sound. I refuse such a title as a veteran of the revolution. Of course, His Majesty the Emperor forced it on me as a contemporary nobleman!”

“For someone who says that, you’re carrying a lot of medals.”

Then the still fat old man, Danton, flinched and grabbed the medal on his chest.

“Ahem! The Legion of Honor is to commemorate my dedication to the country. I can never give it up!”

Of course, unlike the Champagne count title, which is only in name, the medal provides a pension.

If that wasn’t the case, Danton would be ranting about the Emperor for an hour by now.

After smiling for a moment, David asked.

“So, do you know why he told me to draw this painting again? That’s why I invited you.”

“How do I know what’s on the Emperor’s mind? But I know what the problem is now. Well, you’ll give me a painting or so, right?”

“What is it?”

Then Danton sparkled his eyes and shouted.

“It’s the Deutsch people [German people]. The old subjects of the dissolved Austria and Prussia, and young aspiring revolutionaries are running wild, under the instigation of Metternich!”

Danton, who once traveled around the diplomatic world, including the Russian Empire.

In particular, he participated in the dismantling of Prussia and the division of Hungary.

Therefore, he easily found out the public opinion trends of the Deutsch people.

David opened his mouth wide and asked back.

“There is no country called Deutsch, is there?”

“That’s why they’re more desperate. On the contrary, aren’t there no French people who think that the existence of the country is something to be grateful for?”

“But what does this painting have to do with it?”

At that moment, Danton pointed to the painting with his thick hand.

“First of all, try drawing it. Isn’t it an opportunity to revive your old passion after a long time?”

Again, David looked at the painting.

More than half of the people depicted in the painting are no longer in the world.

The remaining half are devoted to the Empire and live a life far from revolution.

David himself is no different.

Nevertheless, he still remembers the Great Revolution that made his heart burn in his youth.

“Well, 3 million francs is enough money to revive my passion.”

First of all, I have to do as much as I got paid.

***

The great painter’s new work was unexpectedly exhibited in Berlin Square.

“It’s Mr. David’s new work!”

The Berlin citizens who gathered in the square shouted in surprise.

“That magnificence! But what is it? That?”

“The Oath of the Jeu de Paume! The oath of the revolutionaries who fought against oppression during the Great Revolution!”

“Oh! Magnificent! This is it!”

A man who looks completely like an old Prussian gentleman shouted.

“The true nature of the great French Empire!”

Pamphlets modeled after the Oath of the Jeu de Paume are being sold everywhere.

There are Berlin citizens, but most of them are travelers.

There are also pamphlets written in German.

Behind him stood a painter wearing a beret.

“The era when revolutionary paintings also promote the greatness of the Empire… that’s something.”

David turned around, looking at the citizens.

“We are living in an amazing era. We are.”

A painting of revolution drawn by a painter who abandoned the revolution.

The Oath of the Jeu de Paume.

It is now a painting that will be sold to rebellious Germans who dream of revolution.

-Step, step, step.

It was the day when David, the painter of the old revolution, completed the Oath of the Jeu de Paume.