THE DEARTH OF MARAT
- Seda DOGAN DEMIREL
- Nov 29, 2025
- 5 min read
Date: 1793
Artist: Jacques-Louis David
Art Movement/Period: Neoclassicism
Exhibited Location: The Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Revolution's Most Dramatic Moment: An Assassination Turned into a Painting
The Death of Marat is an 1793 work by the French artist Jacques-Louis David. It is an oil painting depicting the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, a journalist and radical activist of the French Revolution, by Charlotte Corday, a supporter of the opposing faction. At first glance, a simple portrayal of the body, stabbed to death in his bath, is seen. However, upon closer inspection, intriguing clues are noticed.
In David's work, Marat is depicted as much more than a simple Jacobin journalist stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife by Corday.
Marat: Doctor, Journalist, and Fiery Voice of the Revolution
Marat was a doctor and also a journalist. Since September 1789, he had been publishing the newspaper L'Ami du Peuple(“Friend of the People”). The newspaper had a harsh and ruthless political stance. It passionately defended the French Republic and the cause of the people. It aimed to expose secret conspirators and move towards an ideal democracy by protecting the public from danger and corruption.
At that time, David was not only a leading French artist but also a close friend of Marat, a member of the revolutionary council and the Jacobin Club. As members of the Convention, both had voted in favor of the death penalty for King Louis XVI.
In 1792, Marat joined the National Convention, the assembly that governed France after the monarchy was overthrown (August 10, 1792). He was a prominent member of the Montagnards and the National Convention. There were two opposing revolutionary groups of influence in the Convention: the Montagnards and the more moderate Girondins. The Montagnards were closer to the Jacobin Club in Paris and supported giving more political power to the poorer classes. The Girondins, on the other hand, consisted of France's educated provincial middle class and favored a bourgeois republic.
Corday's Silent Steps: The Road to Assassination
In 1792, the Girondins had encouraged France to go to war against the anti-revolutionary European coalition (Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain). In 1793, they were held responsible when France suffered a series of defeats. They were overthrown by a popular uprising from May 31 to June 2 of the same year. Most of their leaders fled to Caen. Charlotte Corday, a young woman of noble but modest means, frequently attended political meetings there. Corday was admitted to Marat's home on July 13, 1793, on the promise that she would either reveal the names of the Revolution's traitors or plead for the lives of her Girondin acquaintances.
Marat had a skin condition that caused him to spend much of his time in his bathtub. To alleviate the symptoms of this skin disease, he spent most of the day at home in a water-filled tub. Corday found him working in the bath. She then drew the knife she had brought with her and fatally stabbed him in the chest. She was arrested on the spot and tried and convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal within days. She was executed by guillotine on July 17, 1793.
Marat's assassination instantly turned him into a symbol of the people's cause. The government commissioned David to paint this death. At the time, David had gained renown as France's foremost painter. The Death of Marat was one of a series of artworks the government requested from David to create a collection of Revolutionary heroes.
The Structure of the Painting: The Scene of a Silent Drama
The painting's composition is restrained, and the narration is quite direct. Marat is seen as the sole figure in a very simple setting. He is facing the viewer in the bathtub, his right arm dangling to the side, holding a quill pen. The assassin is not present in the work, but Marat's left hand is still clutching the assassin's letter.
The bloody knife, which enhances the scene's dramatic effect, lies on the floor, and the wound just below his collarbone is still bleeding.
Marat's face does not show any expression of surprise or terror; he merely looks as if he is sleeping. This emphasizes his tranquility at the moment of death. Marat is painted with a more flawless appearance than he had in reality. He has a young face, nearly perfect skin, and muscular arms. The Death of Marat has often been compared to Michelangelo's Pietà, as the long, dangling arm is a key similarity in both works.
His posture also recalls Jesus in Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ (c. 1602–04). In that painting, Jesus's body lies in surrender, with his right arm hanging by his side. Even Marat's wound evokes the stigmata of Christ. David glorifies Marat by associating him with Jesus. Like Jesus, who died for the salvation of humanity, Marat is depicted as having died for the cause of the Revolution.
The Signature Left at the Crime Scene: David's Message
At the bottom of the painting, carved into the wooden crate as if it were etched into stone, is the artist's own signature, formally dedicating the work to his assassinated friend: "A Marat, David" (To Marat, David).
This signature is interpreted by some art historians as the artist including himself within the scene.
Below his own name, David is seen to have carved “L'an deux” (Year Two), which denotes the second year of the Revolutionary Calendar, which began with the founding of the Republic in 1792. This clear and legible date is placed among partially erased figures marking the year of the work's creation: "1793". It has been observed that the numbers '17' and '93' in the two bottom corners of the crate were subsequently erased.
The Revolution's Reversal: The Painting's Journey Through Europe
In 1794, the Revolution changed direction, a reaction against radicalism emerged, and public opinion towards Marat also shifted. The painting was hidden during this period because it was feared that it would be destroyed. Maximilien Robespierre, the de facto dictator of France between 1793 and 1794, whom David had supported throughout the Revolution, was executed by guillotine. David himself was put on trial and only escaped death by renouncing his activities. He was imprisoned twice before being released in 1795.
Later, he became the official painter for Napoléon. However, with the Emperor's ultimate defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, David was also exiled to Brussels. He took The Death of Marat with him. He died in Brussels approximately 10 years later. In the late 19th century, his descendants bequeathed The Death of Marat to the city of Brussels in memory of its hospitality.
The painting continued to resonate with a powerful emotional echo in the following centuries. Baudelaire, the French poet, expressed the cold and gloomy atmosphere created by this scene with the following words: "A soul drifts in the cold air of this room, on these cold walls, around this cold and sorrowful bathtub."
References:
Alicja Zelazko, The Death of Marat, Britannica.com
Wikipedia, The Death of Marat
Perrin Stein, Daniella Berman, Philippe Bordes, Mehdi Korchane, Louis-Antoine Prat, Juliette Trey, Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman
Rethinking Jacques‑Louis David’s Marat assassiné through material evidences Catherine Defeyt, Dominique Marechal, Francisca Vandepitte and David Strivay
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat
Google Arts and Culture
Kelly Grovier, The Death of Marat: Unlocking the complex clues hidden inside art history's 1793 true crime masterpiece, BBC.com
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