Database: André Chénier

Poet André Marie Chénier was a student of the classics and ancient Greece. He rubbed shoulders with the foremost literary and aristocratic circles, and was noticed for his writing. His ambition was to become the "modern Homer". During the Revolution, he contributed to the Journal de Paris, denouncing the Revolution's excesses and openly criticizing Robespierre, Marat and the painter Jacques-Louis David with satirical poems. Having become a target during the September massacres, he left Paris for the provinces. He was arrested and guillotined in 1794.