This print is an illustration to a group of prints depicting events during the French Revolution. The prints with accompanying text were originally sold separately between 1791-4, then were issued as a set of three bound volumes 'Collection complète des tableaux historiques de la révolution française' in 1804. The authors of the work were all actively involved in the early stages of the revolution, as was the artist of this print, Jean-Louis Prieur.

Riots broke out in Paris as news spread of the dismissal of the finance minister Jacques Necker. He was popular with the people who believed his strict approach to the country’s financial disrepair would improve things for the ordinary people. Necker was less popular with the nobles, whose spending he tried to curtail, and who would suffer with his proposed tax revisions. On the day following his dismissal, the Parisian public called for the theatres to be closed as a sign of mourning for Necker’s position and the hopes it gave them. The theatres had been closed to mourn the death of the king’s son earlier in the year. Crowds surged towards and into the Paris opera, forcing its closure. This was one of the least bloody protests of the emerging revolution during July 1789.