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.
* *
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 await trial at Versailles. Bismarck and Thiers watch over a demon's stew of Parisians.
- The point of view that Communards faced, truthful representation of another kind.
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 school teacher, not the museum, to do so.
- The museum exhibits this modern adaptation.
La Commune - corpses of combattants by Arnulf Rainer, 1929
The splash of color lessens the impact and disrespects men who are young, small and dead.
* *
The slant is the same as that of the textbooks, street panels and the musée Carnavalet.
- The exhibit of two interchangeable paintings when others are left out:
Execution of hostages at the prison of La Roquette à 8 p;m. by T. Harreguy, 1871
Arrest of an officer of the National Guard at the entry of the 8th's district's City Hall
- 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."*
Mistakes
- The subject of the second painting cannot be an arrest by "the federated Guard," since a museum notice dates the painting in 1870 and the Guard was created on February 15, 1871. Either the notice writer does not know basic fact or the arrest is by government police — the opposite of what's said.
- The write-up equates Communard and Versaillais arrests and violence. In fact, before Bloody Week the Communards executed one person (a spy) and during it 14, of which only six killings (of the Archbishop of Paris and five other clergy) were unjustified in time of war. More on that very limited violence here.
- The impossible firing squad: "Furious with the capitulating generals, the population improvises a tribunal that condemns them. That very evening, they are shot against a wall."
I do not know why the authorities of what used to be a pro-Communard museum promote the Versaillais slant.
It would be interesting
to talk to them.
End of this section.
* * *
Next section,
No comments:
Post a Comment