On 16 October 1793
Marie Antoinette, the widow of the deposed French monarch
Louis XVI, who had been
executed earlier that year, was herself taken to be
guillotined. The queen is portrayed in white, emphasising her innocence, with the executioner
Charles-Henri Sanson binding her hands. A
priest is shown beside her, while soldiers hold back the revolutionary mob of
Sans-culottes. The composition emphasises the former queen's dignity. It was produced at a time when
Great Britain and the
French Republic were at war. Today the painting is in the collection of the
Musée de la Révolution française, in
Vizille. ==References==