THE SAINT-DENIS CITY MUSEUM* DEVOTES ITS THIRD FLOOR TO LA COMMUNE, BUT ITS PRESENTATION HAS WEAKENED
*This medieval town north of Paris is the site of the royal mausoleum. Industrialisation made it working class, Communist for a century (1921-2020), Social-Democratic now.
On my first visit, toward 2015, a video clip on the métro platform announced the exhibit. At the museum I watched it in full.
When I returned in 2020, the video was gone from both metro and museum. I was told that there was an equipment problem that would take a long time to fix. In May 2025, it was still gone.
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Strong points
- Paintings of the time
Marching Army by Alfred Rolls, 1871
The army plodding through the snow refers to the war with Prussia, but the scene is universal.
Anonymous
Communards continuing a killed comrade's aim fits the spirit of the sources.
- Photos and caricatures
Communards awaiting trial at Versailles. Bismarck and Thiers watch over a stew of Parisians that a demon cooks.
- The point of view that Communards faced:
A Wedding during the Commune by Félix Guerie, no date |
Left in the reserve:
Paris after the Commune by Frédéric Dix, no date
- This photo
Blown up and seen figure by figure, the photos are even more poignant. But it has taken a high-school teacher, not the museum, to do so: Please click and scroll down.
- The museum exhibits this modern adaptation.
La Commune - cadavres de combattants par Arnulf Rainer, 1929
The splash of color lessens the impact and disrespects these young, small and terribly vulnerable men.
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The slant is the same as that of the textbooks, street panels and the musée Carnavalet.
- The exhibit of two almost interchangeable paintings when others are left out:
Exécution d'otages à la prison de La Roquette 1871 à 8h du soir by T. Harreguy
Arrêt d'un officier par la Garde nationale fédérée à l'entrée de la Mairie [City Hall ] du 8e arrondissement [district ] by Emmanuel Massé, 1870
- This write-up:
Emmanuel Massé, portraitist and genre painter, here shows an officer of the Empire arrested at the 8th district city hall. Arrests were very frequent, as often by the Communards* as by the Versaillais who encircle Paris. The prisoners allowed pressure on the adverse camp and the summary executions nourished the insurgents' ardor in their desire for vengeance.*
*The real numbers: Hostages shot by a crowd, 51; Monsignor Darboy and five others; about 20 that a prison director refuses to shoot.
Mistakes
- The subject cannot be an arrest by "the federated Guard" is impossible, since the painting is dated 1870 and the Guard was created on February 15, 1871. The arrest has to be by government police — the opposite of what's said.
- The write-up equates Communard and Versaillais arrests. In fact, the Communards took 74 prisoners, the Versaillais a countless number.
- The information in the general descriptive panel could come out of a Versaillais account:
"Furious with the capitulating generals, the population improvises a tribunal that condemns them. That very evening, they are shot against a wall."
For that belief, please click.
Except for the works and documents of the time
we find the Versaillais slant,,
factual errors included.
End of this section.
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