RÉVOIL, Pierre

(b. 1776 Lyon, d. 1842 Lyon)

French painter and collector. He entered the École de Dessin in Lyon around 1791 as a pupil of Alexis Grognard (1752-1840). He then became a designer in a wallpaper factory. In 1795 he began working in Jacques-Louis David’s studio, where, with Fleury Richard, Comte Auguste de Forbin (1779-1841), François-Marius Granet and Louis Ducis (1775-1847), he belonged to what David’s pupils called the ‘parti aristocratique’. In 1800 he published with Forbin, who remained a friend, a comedy that was performed at the Théâtre du Vaudeville, Sterne à Paris, ou le voyageur sentimental.

In 1802, on the occasion of the laying of the first stone of the Place Bellecoeur in Lyon by the First Consul, Révoil executed a large and elaborately allegorical drawing, Bonaparte Rebuilding the Town of Lyon (preparatory drawings, Paris, Louvre, and Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts), which was the basis for a painting exhibited in the Salon of 1804 (destroyed by the artist, 1816). During the same period he composed a number of religious paintings, for example In Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Christ on the Cross (both Lyon, St Nizier). In 1807 Révoil was appointed a teacher in the recently founded École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. His teaching was marked by considerable erudition and contributed to the birth of the ‘Lyon school’, which came to the fore in the 1820s.

Mary, Queen of Scots, Separated from Her Faithfuls

Mary Stuart’s tragic life and courageous death held a particular fascination for educated French society during the Bourbon Restoration. Her devotion to her Catholic faith and a series of unwise alliances resulted in her imprisonment, and, ultimately, execution in 1587 on the orders of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England. The poignant history and romantic drama of Mary’s life and death were utilized to recall the execution of another Queen, Marie-Antoinette, who for the old aristocracy and members of the Bourbon court had become a symbol of royal martyrdom.

R�voil’s painting depicts the moment when Mary is being taken to the place of execution and separated from the faithful followers who had shared her imprisonment.

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René d'Anjou at Palamède de Forbin

The painting was commissioned in 1820 by Count Auguste de Forbin, the director of the royal museums and a friend of the artist. Forbin was particularly interested in this subject because King Ren�’s host, Palam�de, was his ancestor.

King Ren� (King of Sicily and cousin of French King Charles VI) traveling through his estates in Provence, spent the night in the château de La Barben. In the morning, before leaving his hosts, he testified that he was satisfied with their reception and traced on the door of the vestibule his portrait. Palam�de threw himself at the feet of the King to thank him for this sign of favor.

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