From the gift of luxury items to the sacred debt of society towards its own citizens. The issue of luxury during the revolutionary era. 1789-1794

As early as 1789, the revolutionary patriots considered, following Rousseau, that “one can obtain everything with money but virtue and citizens”. But d’Helvétius argues that longing for luxury prevents from indulging in laziness and can reward hard work. This article will investigate three types of material items in order to grasp how these two approaches shaped the relationship to luxury for the revolutionaries: adornment, sweets, housing. However, the true revolutionary luxury is priceless: virtue and freedom are premised on an egalitarian luxury, that of the sacred debt of society towards each of its citizens in terms of assistance and education, as well as the contemplation of beauty in museums accessible to all.