Antoinette Gabrielle Danton

Bust by Claude-André Deseine

Antoinette Gabrielle Danton, née Charpentier, (born Paris 6 January 1760, died Paris, 10 February 1793) was a personality in the French Revolution. She was the first wife of the leading revolutionary Georges Jacques Danton.

Biography

Charpentier was the daughter of Jérôme François Charpentier, a lemonade-maker and, from 1773, owner of the Café Parnasse or Café de l'École, located at the current site of La Samaritaine, in Paris. She married Georges Jacques Danton on 14 June 1787 at the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Paris. The couple had three sons:

On 10 February 1793, while Danton was on a mission in Belgium, Charpentier died giving birth to a boy, who did not survive. Back in Paris on 17 February 1793, Danton was so affected by her death that he recruited sculptor Claude André Deseine and brought him by night to Sainte-Catherine cemetery to excavate Charpentier's body and execute a death mask. Her bust is now on display at Troyes museum.

Sources

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