1 Reunion de Trois Ordres
Anonymous
Réunion des trois
ordres (
Etching with
hand-colouring
Publisher unrecorded
This print is in fact a combination of three etchings
produced separately during the summer of 1789 to celebrate the overthrow of the
political and social order in
The figures represented in each of the scenes are
embodiments of the . The First Estate
(the clergy) is identifiable by his priestly garments and crucifix, the Second
Estate (the nobility) by his sword and extravagant attire, and the Third
(everyone else) by humble dress and the tools with which he tills the land. At
the time of the print’s production, artists sought ways of representing the
changing relationships between the orders in revolutionary
Whereas the right-hand image gleefully showed the first two
Estates humiliated and subjugated, the image on the left La Paix et la Concorde
font la Prosperite des empires (Peace and harmony make empires prosper),
depicts equality between the three orders. Each of them step beyond their
prejudices and privileges (inscribed on papers beneath their feet) to unite in
a single unit. The caption above their heads simply reads ‘Réunion des trois
ordres’ (
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