I don't think I've ever come across a comment about his hair at execution, but that's not really the sort of thing anyone would comment on. Btw there's a reference in a review of an exhibition in New York 1989 of a sketch of him on the way to execuion - has anyone ever seen this, or know who it's by or if it's genuine?
I think in the circumstances Charlotte would have got his hair in his lifetime as a keepsake: peope wore hair in lockets, rings, bracelets etc. "Mourning jewellery' is made of hair from the corpse, but it doesn't seem likely that she'd have got it after death, unless there was a sympathiser involved in the disposal of the bodies (that brings you back to the death mask/life mask conundrum I was discussing earlier in the week!), though Napoleon's hair was kept after his head was shaved for his death mask - in more formal circumstances, though! The date may be a riposte to the fashion for gloating Thermidor medals - mourning the day he and the hope for a Jacobin republic fell, otherwise I'd have thought it would be dated the 10th if it was taken from his corpse?
Perhaps the Boilly portrait is now not believed to be of Robespierre (given the date)? I presume they acquired the more famous stripey portrait at a later date so that is now 'the' portrait. And it sounds like the hair has faded over time from being on display: a lot of museums now keep cabinets covered with pieces of felt you have to lift and press a timer switch for a lightbulb for items like clothing and paper. That reminds me - is the famous bloodstained call to arms, with the unfinished signature, still on display? I presume they still have it, but I'd have thought that would be light-sensitive, too! (though I'm not sure about the truth of the story that surrounds it, or why it's dated the 9th not the 10th!)
no subject
I think in the circumstances Charlotte would have got his hair in his lifetime as a keepsake: peope wore hair in lockets, rings, bracelets etc. "Mourning jewellery' is made of hair from the corpse, but it doesn't seem likely that she'd have got it after death, unless there was a sympathiser involved in the disposal of the bodies (that brings you back to the death mask/life mask conundrum I was discussing earlier in the week!), though Napoleon's hair was kept after his head was shaved for his death mask - in more formal circumstances, though! The date may be a riposte to the fashion for gloating Thermidor medals - mourning the day he and the hope for a Jacobin republic fell, otherwise I'd have thought it would be dated the 10th if it was taken from his corpse?
Perhaps the Boilly portrait is now not believed to be of Robespierre (given the date)? I presume they acquired the more famous stripey portrait at a later date so that is now 'the' portrait. And it sounds like the hair has faded over time from being on display: a lot of museums now keep cabinets covered with pieces of felt you have to lift and press a timer switch for a lightbulb for items like clothing and paper. That reminds me - is the famous bloodstained call to arms, with the unfinished signature, still on display? I presume they still have it, but I'd have thought that would be light-sensitive, too! (though I'm not sure about the truth of the story that surrounds it, or why it's dated the 9th not the 10th!)