Prints showing the illuminations of 1795 In January 1795 the old regime was overthrown, with the help of the French revolutionary troops who invaded the Dutch Republic. In the Netherlands the revolution was bloodless and is therefore often known as the ‘Velvet Revolution’. On 19 June 1795 decorated constructions were placed in 15 locations in Amsterdam, showing imagined or historical scenes. This was in honour of the inauguration of the first elected people’s representatives in Amsterdam and of the alliance formed between France and the Republic of the Netherlands, which was then known as the Batavian Republic. The constructions were a type of political propaganda. They were intended tobe illuminated after dark but the oil lamps guttered and went out in the damp and wind. The three prints shown here are from a series of 15 coloured engravings.