Antoinette Gabrielle Danton

Bust by Claude-André Deseine

Antoinette Gabrielle Charpentier (6 January 1760 – 10 February 1793) was a personality in the French Revolution. She was the first wife of revolutionary Georges Jacques Danton.

Biography

Charpentier was the daughter of Jérôme François Charpentier, the owner (from 1773) 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:

• François, born in May 1788, died in infancy on 24 April 1789
• Antoine, born on 18 June 1790, died on 14 June 1858 with one child, Sophie Octavie Danton born on 3 March 1828 to Sophie Riviere
• François Georges, born on 2 February 1792, died on 18 June 1848.

On 10 February 1793, while Danton was on a mission in Belgium, Charpentier died, aged 33, giving birth to a boy, who also 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.