Thomas Paine
Laurent Dabos (1761–1835)
Oil on canvas, c. 1792
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Before the Reign of Terror began in 1793, Laurent Dabos, an artist from Toulouse undertook (apparently for the purpose of engraving) small full-length portraits of twelve luminaries of the French Revolution—Thomas Paine the only non-Frenchman among them. The bust version here shows Paine about the time he reached France. Well known as the author of Common Sense and Rights of Man, he was greeted by cannon salutes and cries of “Vive Thomas Paine.”
Outlawed in England, Paine was never able to return to his native land, but his portrait was carried there—possibly by a member of the radical Anglo contingent in Paris—and was discovered some years ago in Northumberland.
