MY WORLD 9

Jacques-Louis DAVID: Marat's death.  Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels (Belgium), 1793.

Marat's Death is an oil painting by Jacques-Louis David in 1793, currently on display at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.  The painting represents the death in 1793 of Jean-Paul Marat, who was called the "friend of the people" at the time he was killed on July 13, 1793 and the crime was considered by the revolutionaries as an attack against the new Constitution.  Marat was a figure of revolutionary radicalism represented by the mountaineers, who came to eliminate the Girondins.  Marat was stabbed, while writing in his bathtub, by Charlotte Corday, supported by the more moderate Girondin faction, which traveled from Normandy, Paris obsessed with the idea of killing the man she perceived as a "beast" and thus "saving France".  She approached him using the excuse of talking about traitors to the cause of the revolution.  Corday killed him with a knife she had hidden in his clothes.  He managed to enter Marat's house with the pretense of presenting him with a list of people who should be executed as enemies of France.  Marat thanked him and told him they would be guillotined the following week, at which point Corday immediately stabbed him.  (She was guillotined shortly thereafter). 

David gives the precise meaning of his painting, "The true patriot must be eager to enlighten his fellow citizens and constantly present in their eyes his sublime heroism and virtue" (David said, speaking of Marat).  David was a close friend of Marat, as well as a firm supporter of Robespierre and the Jacobins.  He was disconcerted by his natural ability to convince the masses with his speeches, something he had not yet achieved with painting (not to mention his difficulties in speaking, due to a facial deformity caused by a wound sustained during a duel).  Determined to commemorate the figure of his murdered friend, David painted his portrait soon after (on behalf of the Convention), and organized a splendid funeral for him.  Despite the haste with which he painted the picture (the work was finished and presented at the National Convention within four months, after Marat's death).  The work is one of the finest examples of political art in history, but at the same time it is also the most personal and emotional composition of David, whom he had visited the day before his murder.

Thanks to David's brush, Marat's body becomes an impressive combination of a classic bust and a gesture of the dying Christ.  The viewer can feel an unpleasant sensation as he approaches the face of the deceased, taken from the same death mask as Marat.  However, an air of nobility permeates the scene.  David also removed all the elements that characterized the austerity of Marat's rooms.  He left no trace of the guns that rested on the shelves, the pattern on the walls, or the shoe shaped bathtub.  Extreme simplicity was to characterise the work.  Obviously, the depiction of the murdered friend had a propaganda function and David fulfilled his objective to a large extent.  The martyr of the Revolution was taking shape.  He also eliminated Charlotte Corday from the scene.  Now, she is present.  The spectator can observe two letters: one is Corday's letter to force an encounter with Marat, the other a letter from Marat to an unknown patriotic widow to whom he offers charity.  Corday's letter says: "It is enough that I am unhappy to have the right to your benevolence".  Marat's letter says: "You will give this assignment to that mother and her five children, the husband of whom she died defending her country".  The idea conveyed by David is simple: a cunning and interested Corday who deceives the revolutionary patriot Marat, who is concerned with charity towards the victims of the Revolution.

One footage of how Marat's death happened (it's in Spanish, I didn't get it in English, the other footage was in French, sorry): https://youtu.be/CRsmrIQscs0

Video of what happened on the day of his death: https://youtu.be/HKDlvpnYTRA

Photo of Charlotte Corday:

Photo of Jacques-Louis David: