Tom Stammers

Rosa Bonheur set about trampling ideas of feminine decorum in the pursuit of professional excellence. De­termined to understand animal anatomy close­up, she waded into the Abattoirs du Roule and conducted her own dissections; eager to explore the Pyrenees, she applied for formal permission to travel in male at­tire and was granted an exemption from the arcane law against cross-­dressing.

On 19 June​ 1790 the Prussian nobleman Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots, appeared at the bar of the French National Assembly. Five years earlier, he had left Paris in disgust at monarchical despotism, vowing not to return until the Bastille – its most notorious symbol – had fallen. Now he led a delegation of foreigners pleading the right to participate in the...