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195 - DANTON (GEORGES-JACQUES). "THE FIGHTS WHICH I DELIVERED AGAI…
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Estimate €40,000 - €50,000
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DANTON (GEORGES-JACQUES). "THE FIGHTS WHICH I DELIVERED AGAINST THE PRINCIPAL ENEMIES OF FREEDOM...". Autograph letter signed "Danton" to his wife Gabrielle Charpentier. Liège, 17 December 1792. 3 pp. in-4. A VERY PRECIOUS DOCUMENT FROM ONE OF THE GREAT PROTAGONISTS OF THE REVOLUTION, ILLUSTRATING HIS POLITICAL COMMITMENT AND HIS PRIVATE LIFE. "The courier who brought me your letter, my dear Gabrielle, is leaving in a minute and I only have a moment to let you know how pleased I am to hear from you; don't forget to keep an eye on my trees in Arcis [his house in Arcis-sur-Aube] and to ask your father to hurry up the arrangement of my accommodation in his house in the greenhouse; give my little Danton [his son Antoine, born in 1790] a thousand kisses. Tell him that his father will try not to be away for long. I have just received the second letter in which I see that you have done what I wanted to recommend to you. I also think that L'AMI BRUNE [the future Marshal Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune, then a member of the Cordeliers club like Danton, and a close friend of Danton] has exaggerated things a little by giving you reason to believe that I will be detained for more than two months by my mission. I hope to kiss you goodbye on 1 January after spending a day or two in Arcis. I read in a public paper that A CERTAIN RIVAROL, in a conversation with Laporte, did me the honour of classing me among those they could win over with dinners. Would you therefore be weak enough to have been worried about such nonsense; YOU KNOW THAT IF IN ORDER TO BETTER SERVE MY COUNTRY I HAVE RUN THE HAZARD OF DINING WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE, I HAVE WORKED SO WELL TO MAKE THEM GIVE THE BAL THAT WE ARE COMPLETELY QUIT. You know how much my whole life and the battles I have waged against the main enemies of liberty put me in a position to confound all the malicious ones. All yours for life... Always write "Dumouriez's Army". I received Brune's coat just as I had bought one. Greetings to all our friends after dear father. Georges-Danton, then a representative of Paris at the Convention and a much-listened-to member of the Jacobin Club, defended the idea of extending France within its "natural borders". Between November and March 1793, along with other members of the Convention, he took part in three missions to organise the territories conquered in what is now Belgium after General Dumouriez's victory at Jemmapes (6 November 1792). Danton was extraordinarily attached to his wife Gabrielle, and was dealt a terrible blow when, on a mission outside Paris for the Convention, he learned that she had died in childbirth in his absence (10 February 1793): he rushed home, and had her dug up to have her face moulded by the sculptor Deseine, in order to preserve her features forever. ANTOINE DE RIVAROL (1753-1801), an anti-revolutionary essayist and pamphleteer, was also the brother of General Dumouriez's mistress. Danton, who had favoured Dumouriez's career, was highly venal and, like Rivarol's sister, was said to have received secret commissions on supply contracts for Dumouriez's army. A FRIEND OF DUMOURIEZ AND CLOSE TO RIVAROL, ARNAUD DE LAPORTE (1737-1792), Intendant of the Civil List (under the King's Household), was also the leader of the monarchist club "Le National" and was responsible for providing financial support for royalist propaganda. He was also responsible for distributing the funds used to organise the royal family's escape to Varennes. Extremely rare "LES LETTRES PRIVEES DE DANTON SONT TRES RARES: ON NNAIT TOUT AU PLUS TROIS OU QUATRE" (Charles Vellay, in "Lettres inédites de Danton", Revue historique de la Révolution française, no. 10, Paris, April-June 1912, p. 177). Most of his official autograph letters are in public custody. Provenance: former collections of Alfred SENSIER (Paris, Librairie Charavay frères, 1878, notes by Étienne Charavay, no. 201, "autograph of the greatest rarity", with partial reproduction on p. 32), Alfred MORRISON (1891, vol. II, p. 5, no. 2, with full reproduction pl. 60), Arthur MEYER (Paris, Drouot, Francisque Lefrançois and Noël Charavay experts, 3-6 June 1924, no. 129/autographes-3°); Christian Lazard (Paris, Drouot, Pierre Cornuau and Claude Guérin experts, 19 May 1967, no. 62); Robert Gérard.
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About the sale The Empire at Fontainebleau - Second day
Auction location
Auction time 06/21/2026 at 10:30 AM
Pictures credits:
Michel Bury and Henri du Cray
See original version (French)
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