Harping on patriotism: female education meets Orléanist ambition in Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust’s The Harp Lesson (1791)

Abstract

One of the largest and most striking submissions to the 1791 Salon, The Harp Lesson by Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust was an ambitious but spectacularly ill-timed intervention in revolutionary politics. It emerged from Félicité de Genlis’ remarkable educational project for the children of the duc d’Orléans, especially Princess Adélaïde, which mixed bold ideas about gender and civic virtue with specific political ambition. This article situates the painting within the experimental politics and sentimental crises of the Orléans household. It argues that Giroust, an intimate of this household, sought to exemplify some of Genlis’ boldest claims for the capacities and potential of the royal children in her care, especially at the expense of their biological mother. It demonstrates how Giroust engaged with the visual languages of recent Salon painting to create a domestic scene of female accomplishment that was also freighted with national purpose. The failure of the painting to resonate with the public illuminates the desperate gamble of different figures in the Orléanist camp as well as the unfulfilled possibilities of summer 1791.