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The Legislative Body: Print Portraits of the National Assembly, 1789–1791
- Eighteenth-Century Studies
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 41, Number 3, Spring 2008
- pp. 337-358
- 10.1353/ecs.2008.0018
- Article
- Additional Information
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This essay explores the problem of political representation during the early years of the French Revolution through the lens of a series of portraits of the deputies to the National Assembly, the Collection Générale des Portraits de MM. les Députés à l'Assemblée Nationale, published by Nicolas-François Levachez. As the first visual depiction of the deputies, the prints manipulate the language of portraiture to strike a balance between representing a series of individual men and a collective body politic, and to invite political participation and judgment from viewers.