Joseph Désiré COURT (Rouen 1797 - Paris 1865) Boissy d'Anglas saluting the head of Deputy Féraud, Journée du 1er Prairial An III" (May 20, 1795) Original canvas (Belot) 88 x 115 cm Louis XVI period carved and gilded wood frame stamped INFROIT and JME Signed lower right "Court Old restorations Provenance : Court sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Me Pillet), February 23 and 24, 1866, no. 3 ; Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Brissoneau et Daguerre), March 21, 2008, no. 90. Bibliography : F., "Concours pour le troisième tableau destiné à la Chambre des Députés. (Deuxième article)", Journal des Artistes, April 10, 1831; M.-C. Chaudonneret, L'état et les artistes : de la restauration à la monarchie de Juillet (1815-1833), Paris, 1999, pp. 206-208; Jean-Loup Leguay, " De pareilles œuvres valent toutes une histoire " : l'Odyssée du Boissy d'Anglas saluant la tête de Féraud (1833) peint par Joseph-Désiré Court ",Le Temps des collections Hors-série, Réunion des Musées de Rouen Métropole, 2021, p. 64 and p. 67, fig. 4. To decorate the wall of the Salle des Séances of the Chambre des Députés in the Palais Bourbon, a competition was organized by the French government in September 1830. The iconographic program was entrusted to Interior Minister Guizot, who chose three themes, corresponding to three distinct paintings, illustrating the legislative history of the French Revolution. Court presented this sketch alongside fifty-three participants, including Eugène Delacroix (Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard (Paris, Musée du Louvre), Nicolas Sébastien Maillot (Reims, Musée Saint-Denis), Joseph Auguste Tellier (Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon), Felix Auvray (Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Alphonse Roehn (Tarbes, Musée Massey), Thomas Degeorge (Clermont-Ferrand, Musée Bargoin) and Guillon-Lethière (sale in Monaco in 2025). Auguste Vinchon won the competition with his sketch, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours. The scene depicted in our painting takes place in the Salle de la Convention Nationale, which corresponds to the Salle des Machines in the Tuileries, in fact a theater. On Prairial 1st, Year III (May 20, 1795), starving Parisians invaded the Convention. Féraud, deputy for the Hautes-Pyrénées region, opposed the riot and was shot dead by a pistol. His head was severed and presented to the president of the session, Boissy d'Anglas, at the end of a pike. The Journal des Artistes of April 10, 1831 published a review of the competition, in which our painting was described: "At last, M. Court, one of the most formidable competitors (sic), appears with his usual advantages: vivid color, piquant light, a drawing rich in diversity, individuality and expression. The scene is large and lively. The deputies are chased and outraged by the furious populace. Boissy d'Anglas stands calmly in front of the hideous spectacle; but he thinks nothing of resisting the rebels. A gesture with his left arm, calculated in this direction, would have added great value to his picture". Humiliated at having failed this test, Court decided to develop our sketch into a vast painting (canvas 4.92 x 8.13 cm), now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen (inv. FNAC PFH-254), which he exhibited several times, starting with the Salon of 1833, then in Brussels the same year and finally in various provincial towns between 1833 and 1835. Shown in Rouen, his home town, it received a particularly warm welcome from the press and public during the month and a half of the exhibition (March 29 - May 12, 1835). Thus appreciated, the painting was acquired by the State at the museum's request, with the promise of being deposited there.