Portrait of Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac
by LANEUVILLE, Jean-Louis, Oil on canvas, 130 x 97 cm
Bertrand Bar�re de Vieuzac (1755-1841) was a French politician and journalist, one of the most notorious members of the National Convention during the French Revolution. Traditionally the Bar�re portrait is deemed to show the politician standing before the Tribunal of the Convention on 4 January 1793, demanding the death of Louis XVI; Laneuville, however, confused both the date of the King’s trial and the correspondence between the Gregorian and Revolutionary calendars, showing Bar�re resting his right hand on a sheet of paper dated 4 January 1792, Year II.