The Death of Marat

The Death of Marat

This famous depiction of Marat’s assassination (1793) is by the unofficial (and sometimes official) artist of the French Revolution, Jacques–Louis David, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style. Scholars have seen this vision as a revolutionary pietà because of the repose of the corpse, so different from that of a normal body in a stage of rigor mortis. David also planned Marat’s funeral on behalf of the government.

Musée d'art ancien of Brussels, Belgium, no. 3261.

1793-07-14

http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/632/

632