Marat picture in the bathroom. Death of Marat

The photo shows a memorial plaque dedicated to the master of classicism, the painter Jacques-Louis David, on a neoclassical mansion located behind the Monnet theater. And although this board hangs on the balcony of the second floor, you can still read on it:
french artist
Louis David

An uninitiated passer-by might think that David only died in this house. But no, he lived in it for about 10 years, and his workshop was located in it. Apparently, the authors of the inscription singled out the death of David as the main one.
Indeed, the image of the hour of death occupied a significant place in the artist's work. It is no coincidence that one of his most famous paintings is "The Death of Marat". In addition, he was in exile in Brussels, as a member of the Convention who voted for the death of King Louis XVI. Because of the vote given for the death of the king, he was not allowed to be buried in Paris, and David remained in Brussels after his death.

The Death of Socrates (1787), New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The subject of this painting, commissioned from David in 1786, has been in vogue ever since it was recommended to painters by Diderot. In 1762 the theme of the Death of Socrates was proposed for the Rome competition. Yes, and at the salon of 1787, where David exhibited this picture, there was another Death of Socrates, another artist. And David won this unspoken competition.
The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and in the French Wikipedia is included in the list of the most famous works of the artist.

Then David actively participated in revolutionary events, was elected to the Convention, where he voted for the death of the king. One of the members of the Convention, Michel Lepeletier, who also voted for the execution of Louis XVI, was killed for this. And David, from a picture depicting Lepelletier on his deathbed, began a series of paintings about the martyrs of the revolution.

Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau on his deathbed, engraving by A. Devozh from a painting by Louis Lavid.

This painting and the Death of Marat were exhibited at the Convention, after which they returned to the artist, who took them with him into exile. After David's death, his son took her to Paris, where she was ransomed by Lepelletier's daughter, Susanna, and destroyed. Susanna did not share her father's revolutionary views and sought to destroy all reminders of him as a martyr of the revolution. She almost succeeded, but the engraving of David's student remained.

Well, the death of Marat, 1793, everyone knows. It was written almost immediately after his assassination. The artist was brought into exile and donated to Brussels.
The third picture from the series about the martyrs was supposed to be the Death of young Bar, but it remained unfinished:

The death of young Bar. 1793. Jacques Louis David

Thirteen-year-old drummer Joseph Bara was killed in a battle with Vendéan rebels. Robespierre gave a fiery speech at the Convention about this hero of the revolution, and David was instructed to portray his death, already overgrown with legends. But David's painting was not finished, and other artists did a better job.
If Marat's nakedness is understandable, he is in the bath, Lepelletier's naked body is draped in an antique way, then why David painted the young drummer completely naked is not very clear and even suspicious to some. Therefore, the picture hangs in the Avignon Museum (where I stumbled upon it and photographed it), and not in Paris, like this one:

Jean-Joseph Weerts (1847-1927) - Musée d "Orsay, Paris

As for the death of David himself, the most plot-forming in it, we must pay tribute to the creators of the board, really turned out to be the place and time. Place in a broad sense - in Brussels, and time - Restoration of the monarchy in France. Therefore, they did not allow David to be buried in the family crypt at the Père Lachaise cemetery, as his son wanted. Paris got only the heart of the artist, which his son brought without asking anyone. And David and in Brussels had students and admirers who raised funds for a monument and an eternal concession.

And it seemed that it would be possible to put an end to it. But no.
In 1971 (146 years after David's death) in Belgium (which was formed after the death of the artist) a law was passed to abolish indefinite (eternal) burials and a maximum period of 50 years was introduced, that is, David's grave immediately became overdue. A philanthropist was found who paid for the next 50 years, but he himself died earlier and the ownership of the grave passed to one organization. But that's not all.
In 1989, Freddie Tielemans (whom many of you will remember as the Mayor of Brussels), then the Arts Council, was so impressed by the fall of the Berlin Wall that he offered to return David's ashes to France. Like, on the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, and since the ideas of this revolution triumphed throughout Europe, it would be symbolic to finally bury David in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. And while in Paris they figured out how to hold this ceremony, a serious controversy flared up in Brussels. The first to resist was the organization that, after the death of the patron, was engaged in the artist's grave (the grave, moreover, was opened by the mayor in order to see, and if anything, to return). Colleagues from the municipality also spoke out against: "The fact that this shameful wall is finally destroyed does not mean that we should be deprived of OUR heritage!" By the time it became completely clear that everyone except Freddie Tielemans and the mayor was against it, the French had resolved organizational issues and sent a coffin for David's ashes. The controversy moved to another level and flared up with renewed vigor. While citizens followed her through publications (Will David's coffin remain empty? Are you for or against the transfer of David's ashes? ... demands to return David's heart to Brussels. Do you want David with or without frites? - these are all the headlines of articles from the Le Soir archive), the issue was resolved (according to rumors at the highest level): the ashes of another exile were transferred to France, with the condition that the question of the ashes of David not be returned to. David's tomb has been classified as a state-protected monument.

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The death of Jean-Paul Marat, 1793
by #David:fr:
oil on canvas. 165 × 128 cm.
:round_pushpin: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Jacques Louis David - Death of Marat.

Year of creation: 1793

La Mort de Marat

Canvas, oil.

Original size: 165×128cm

Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels

"The Death of Marat" (fr. La Mort de Marat) - a painting by the French artist Jacques Louis David, is one of the most famous paintings dedicated to the French Revolution. The picture tells about the fate of Jean Paul Marat, a journalist of the radical newspaper "Friend of the People", the leader of the Jacobins. Marat was one of the most ardent supporters of the Jacobin terror. Having fallen ill with a skin disease, Marat did not leave the house and, in order to alleviate his suffering, took baths. On July 13, 1793, he was stabbed to death in his apartment by noblewoman Charlotte Corday.

Description of the painting by Jacques Louis David “Death of Marat”

The widely known painting "The Death of Marat" was painted in oil on canvas in 1793. Jean Paul Marat, one of the associates of the French Revolution, cruel and despotic, a supporter of radical measures, was a close friend of David. It was in this form that the artist saw him for the last time. The picture is a kind of tribute to the memory of a close friend.

Marat suffered from a skin disease, and bathing procedures helped him to forget the pain. In the picture, he is depicted just in the bathroom, with a note in his hand from Charlotte Cordier, which he did not have time to read. Charlotte was a supporter of democracy, the policy of violence, brutal murders carried out by Marat, contrary to her beliefs. She hated him for it. Appearing at his apartment allegedly with a denunciation of the deputies, she heard in response that all of them should be sent to the guillotine. The woman could no longer endure it and killed Marat with a single stab in the chest. And the note was just an excuse to get into Marat's apartment. Charlotte was executed five days after the murder. She was sent to the guillotine.

Since the revolutionary, a Jacobin, was a close friend of the artist, the picture turned out to be very emotional. On the cabinet, moved up by the bathroom, is written "David-Marat", a kind of dedication to a friend. Marat's face is distorted with pain, there is a bleeding wound on his chest, near the bath on the floor there is a knife that the killer threw. The bath is draped with fabric, and it seems that this is the last refuge of a restless soul.

Against the dark background of the wall, the figure of Marat looks dramatic and pitiful. Once the arbiter of other people's lives and destinies, sending dissidents to the chopping block, he himself did not escape death. And it seems that only death can reconcile him with this world. David sang of his friend, the great revolutionary, but in fact, he made the world talk about himself as a great artist.

"Death of Marat"
Jacques Louis David

Jean Paul Marat - one of the leaders of the French Revolution, a radical journalist, leader of the Jacobins. Known by the nickname "Friend of the People", after the newspaper he published.

Suffering from a severe skin disease, Marat did not leave the house and constantly took baths to alleviate suffering. During one of them, on July 13, 1793, when he was looking through the proofs of his last journal, a noblewoman Charlotte Corday came to him under the guise of a petitioner, whom he took right in the bathroom. After a 15-minute conversation, Charlotte stabbed him with a dagger she had brought with her. Marat died, having only time to shout: “A moi, ma chère amie!” (To me, my friend!), Addressing his concubine, who was in the next room.

Sometimes people die in the bathroom, and some of those deaths become legendary. As, for example, happened to the leader of the group Doors. Despite the fact that it is reliably known that Morisson did not die in the bathroom, Oliver Stone perpetuated this myth in his painting The Doors. Having shown the symbolic rejuvenation of the fattened Morrison, the return of that former Dionysus, who, having died, remained forever young and beautiful, he once and for all created another magnificent myth.

In some cases, death occurs violently. It happens that such deaths also become a legend. Moreover, over time, the tandem “killer-victim” becomes a myth, just like that in a spike, and not alone. This case will be discussed today.

Probably the most famous (after, of course, Archimedean) bath in history, and certainly the most famous in painting, is the bath in which Jean-Paul Marat was killed. On July 13, 1793, a young 25-year-old girl with her unwavering hand stabbed to death the most cruel theorist-justifier of the bloody terror of the French Revolution, who called for France to be flooded with the blood of 200,000 "enemies of the revolution and the people" (in contrast to these unfortunate ones, he called himself "Friend of the People"). The killer's name was Charlotte Corday, she was the granddaughter of the famous poet Corneille.

Here is how historians write about it:
“History knows political assassinations that had even greater consequences than the Charlotte Corday case. However, with the exception of the assassination of Julius Caesar, perhaps no other historical assassination attempt has struck so contemporaries and posterity. There were many reasons for this - from the identity of the victim and the killer to an unusual setting: the bathroom.

And here is what Charlotte Corday herself said, who briefly survived her victim (on July 17, 1793, she was publicly executed on the guillotine):
"Shame on the crime, not the scaffold."

And such posthumous words were attributed (more precisely, added) to Marat by Jacques Louis David in his painting “The Head of Marat”:
"They couldn't buy me, and they killed me."

The murder of Marat was reflected in many works of art, the most famous of them was the painting by Jacques Louis David "The Death of Marat" (above), I personally know it from a school history textbook. But not only David captured this dramatic event. There are also known appeals of other artists to this topic. From completely different points of view.

For example, in a painting by another Frenchman, Paul Jacques Baudry, the protagonist is the killer, not the victim. The picture is called accordingly - "Charlotte Corday"

And here is another picture describing what happened - "The Murder of Marat", pen Antoine Joseph Wirtz.

In 1996, it was placed on a postage stamp.

A postcard-reproduction of the painting was issued in the Soviet Union.

Another version - from Jules-Charles Avier:

Our artists also turned to this plot, for example, Andrey Goncharov.

Vladimir Alekhin.

Immediately after the murder, a lot of graphic drawings came out, the authorship of which I also could not determine. If suddenly someone can tell me - do not refuse courtesy.

And some artists saw this event like this.

Edvard Munch showed the dead Marat outside the bathroom.

There are several puritanical images in which the murdered man was dressed in outerwear.

Our compatriot Denis Zhukov, in general, placed Marat in the forest under the birches, and handed Charlotte a gun (well, every artist has the right to his own vision).

The next picture is also interesting, in which Marat is absent, but Charlotte Corday (if she can be recognized in this creature ...) is in the bathroom!

And finally, here is such an American interpretation - the painting by Sandro Birk "The Death of Manuel"

July 13, 1793 The friend of the people did not get out of the bath. For the past month, he'd spent most of the day in the bathroom. Warm water helped to relieve the unbearable itching from skin lichen, especially pestering in the heat. Simone Evrard, the faithful companion of the great revolutionary, added boiling water, trying not to spoil the compositions of her idol.
The friend of the people was noticeably haggard. And it is true, not only a skin disease was to blame. A large nose, like the beak of a vulture, hung over the bloodless lips, the look from which half of France was shaking faded, and from time to time a cloudy veil covered sunken eyes.
- Yes, he is not a tenant in this world, - an astute observer would note, if such a person happened to enter the apartment at 30 Cordillera Street.
"Damned pigs," whispered Marat, looking dejectedly out of the cloudy window. “While the Convention is engaged in criminal chatter, the Girondins are building up forces in the provinces, and their leaders are calling to go to Paris. Little blood was allowed to the enemies of the Revolution.
"Not enough, oh, not enough," they assented in an empty corner.
“200,000 trees in the capital, and an enemy of freedom must hang on each one!” shouted the Friend of the People.
There was silence in the corner.
-Here, a simple citizen writes: "What's the matter with you, Marat?! Wake up, the country is in danger!" Or, in the morning, they handed over ... Simone, bring the hell out of almond milk! And where did I put the letter from this girl, like her ...
- Corday, - the cohabitant grimaced, giving the envelope. - In the morning I did not accept her and did not allow Marat to interfere. So the slut promised to come again.
Simone was still jealous of his women. A friend of the people, even a sick man, remained a great man.

"Citizen, I have come from Caen. Your love for the fatherland makes me suppose that you will learn with interest about the unfortunate events in this part of the republic. I will come to you about an hour. Kindly receive me and give me a minute to talk. I will provide you the opportunity to render a great service to the fatherland.
______________________________ Charlotte Corday.

The doorbell made the citizen Evrard start up. On the threshold, leaning against the wall, stood a tall girl, the same one who came in the morning. An elegant, slightly provincial dress. Tastefully matched hat. You can immediately see that they are of noble blood. Appears to be 22-26 years old. And pretty.
"Whatever?" Simone snapped.
- I want ... Can I talk to Jean-Paul Marat, Friend of the people?
- I'm afraid your business won't work out today, cutie. We do not accept visitors.
- But it's very important. It's about the security of the republic. I have to deliver...
- Simone, if you come to me, let me in! - shouted Marat, sitting in the bathroom.
Citizen Evrard shrugged her shoulders and moved reluctantly, just enough so that the girl could squeeze into the hallway.
- Look, rubbish, dressed up. "On an important matter!" And at the most, I suppose, the bridegroom is in prison and the scaffold threatens him. We will be interrupted from work because of every noblewoman.
She suddenly became alert at the sound of excited voices and the sound of a chair falling over. Simone stormed into the room where the bathroom was located. She froze, shocked by what she saw. Marat writhed in the blood-red water, unsuccessfully trying to wrest the knife from his chest, driven to the very handle. He wheezed dully, strength and life left his exhausted body.
"Slut!" Simone screeched, finding her voice. - Hold on, she killed Marat!
Charlotte Corday failed to run out onto the stairs. She was stunned, knocked to the floor and guarded until law enforcement arrived.

Three days later, the embalmed corpse of the Friend of the People was paraded half-naked, wrapped in the national flag like a sheet. The painter David, a comrade-in-arms of the deceased in the struggle, the main organizer of the mourning ceremony, gave Marat a frivolously solemn look of a bather. The now-famous bath flaunted nearby. If desired, traces of blood could be seen on its walls.
After the solemn funeral, nationwide grief resulted in the appearance of countless busts, statuettes, and jewelry designed to perpetuate the memory of Marat. Opera houses were created and streets renamed. Parents called the born boys the name of the national hero. David, mourning his beloved friend, painted the famous painting "The Death of Marat", for which he modestly asked for 24,000 livres. In fact, I only got half of it.
Charlotte Corday was executed on July 17. Under the slanting knife of the guillotine, she lay down herself, with a huge confluence of people. When a wooden collar with a slot pinned her to the chopping block, Charlotte still had time to smile at Robespierre standing nearby. And after a second or two, to the roar of the crowd excited by the blood, the executioner slapped the dead head.

A bizarre time put everything in its place, rewarding each of the participants in the tragedy.
The mastermind behind the massacres, Jean-Paul Marat, found peace in a modest Parisian cemetery. However, either his grave turned out to be shallow, or the intrigues of ungrateful descendants affected, but the rain washed away the mortal remains and they were thrown away. Uprooted by the earth, so to speak. His name did not stay in the people's memory, because the people do not like terrorists.
The image of Mademoiselle Corday, the granddaughter of the great Corneille, inspired many artists and poets who sang the feat of the struggle against tyranny, and at the World Exhibition of 1889, the skull of Marianne-Charlotte Corday, the heroine of France, was exhibited.
Simone Evrard, who was not legally married (except for a dubious ceremony in the presence of the Supreme Being), received the official title of "Marat's widow". This, however, had little effect on her further difficult life.
The famous portrait of David lives his quiet life in the Brussels Museum. And as the encyclopedia article mentions:
The Death of Marat is considered David's masterpiece. It was painted from the direct impression of the situation in which the artist saw the friend of the people for the last time. The dead man's head, wrapped in a turban, hung helplessly to one side, one hand fell to the floor, the other still holding the paper. Bare walls, a wooden stump instead of a table, a primitive inkwell - everything is in harmony with the general atmosphere of the murder. The bathtub and the drapery of the fabric, hanging in large folds, are perceived as an antique sarcophagus; the block on which the inkwell stands is a tombstone with the inscription: "Maratu - David." The features of the murdered man are of a portrait nature, although they are changed by the expression of sorrow and suffering. The dark background, the harsh light, and the clear, stable black and white modeling enhance the feeling of detachment from everything random."

That's all. Although it is impossible not to mention one more participant in the events. The famous bath, from the scenery to the drama turned into a full-fledged character. After the funeral, she went to Carousel Square, where she was built into the monument to Marat. When the monument was destroyed, traces of the bath were lost for a long time. However, at the end of the 19th century, a certain provincial abbe of La Cossa swore that the relic that he inherited from the Comtesse de Saint-Hilaire was the one from Cordillera Street. The bath now rests in Grevin's Wax Museum. And he's not going anywhere.

This article is about the painting. For an article about the film, see Death of Marat

"The Death of Marat" (fr. La Mort de Marat) - a painting by the French artist Jacques Louis David, is one of the most famous paintings dedicated to the Great French Revolution.

The picture tells about the fate of Jean Paul Marat, a journalist of the radical newspaper "Friend of the People", the leader of the Jacobins. Marat was one of the most ardent supporters of the Jacobin terror. Having fallen ill with a skin disease, Marat did not leave the house and, in order to alleviate his suffering, took baths. On July 13, 1793, he was stabbed to death in his apartment by noblewoman Charlotte Corday.

The inscription on the wooden pedestal is the author's dedication: "MARATU, David". In Marat's hand is a sheet with the text: “July 13, 1793, Marie Anna Charlotte Corday - to citizen Marat. I am unhappy, and therefore I have the right to your protection. In fact, Marat did not have time to receive this note - Corday killed him earlier. Although many researchers claim that the episode with the note was completely invented by the artist in order to further emphasize the drama. His posture and wound just below the collarbone resembles the image of Jesus, at the moment of being taken down from the cross. The chaotic and chaotic murder is carefully edited by the artist and resembles martyrdom. The position of the right hand is reminiscent of the figure of Jesus in the painting "The Burial of Christ" (sometimes "The Entombment"), by Caravaggio.

David brought the picture to the Convention. In his speech to the deputies, he said:

"The people turned to my art, wanting to see the features of their friend again ... I heard the voice of the people, I obeyed him. - Hurry, everyone! Mother, widow, orphan, oppressed soldier, all of you whom Marat defended until the end of his life, come closer "And look at your friend. The one who stood guard is no more. His pen, the horror of traitors, falls from his hands. Oh, woe! Your indefatigable friend is dead!"

The painting was extremely popular, there are several repetitions of the author’s and artists of his school (“The Death of Marat. Approx. 1793. Workshop of David. Museum of Fine Arts in Reims,” Death of Marat. Approx. 1793. Workshop of David. Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon, “Jean Paul Marat, murdered in a bath on July 13, 1793. 19th century by J.-M. Langlois after David's order, Versailles).

Baudelaire's canvas was appreciated, according to his definition, Marat, is "before us is a tragedy, full of living pain and horror." “There is something tender and at the same time aching in the picture; in the cold space of this room, between these cold walls, above the cold sinister bathroom, the soul soars.

The painting is currently in Brussels, in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.

Other artists also painted on this plot. For example:

In the painting by Paul Jacques Baudry, the protagonist is already the killer, not the victim. The picture is called accordingly - "Charlotte Corday" (1860, Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes).

Also, the death of Marat is dedicated to many engravings and drawings.

This is part of a Wikipedia article used under the CC-BY-SA license. Full text of the article here →