Marat painting in the bathroom. Death of Marat

Sometimes people die in the bathtub, and some of these deaths become legendary. As, for example, happened to the leader of the Doors group. Despite the fact that it is reliably known that Morisson did not die in the bathroom, Oliver Stone perpetuated this myth in his film “The Doors.” Showing the symbolic rejuvenation of the fat 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 legends. Moreover, over time, the “killer-victim” tandem becomes a myth, just like that in a joint, and not alone. This is the case we will talk about today.

Probably the most famous (after, of course, Archimedes) 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 the most cruel theoretician and founder of the bloody terror of the French Revolution, who called for drowning France in 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 girl's name was Charlotte Corday, she was the granddaughter of the famous poet Corneille.

Here's how historians write about it:
“History knows of 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 shocked contemporaries and posterity so much. There were many reasons for this - from the identity of the murdered person and the killer to the unusual location: the bathroom."

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

And these posthumous words were attributed (or rather, drawn) to Marat by Jacques Louis David in his painting “The Head of Marat”:
“They couldn’t buy me, so they killed me.”

The murder of Marat was reflected in many works of painting, the most famous of which was Jacques Louis David’s painting “The Death of Marat” (above), I personally am familiar with it from a school history textbook. But David was not the only one to record this dramatic event. Other artists are also known to address this topic. From completely different points of view.

For example, in the painting of another Frenchman, Paul Jacques Baudry, the main character is the killer, not the victim. The painting is called accordingly - “Charlotte Corday”

And here is another picture that describes what happened - “The Murder of Marat”, by Antoine Joseph Wirtz.

In 1996 it was placed on a postage block stamp.

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

Another version - from Jules-Charles Avier:

Our artists, for example, Andrei Goncharov, also turned to this subject.

Vladimir Alekhin.

Immediately after the murder, many graphic drawings were published, the authorship of which I also could not determine. If suddenly someone can give me a hint, please do not refuse me the courtesy.

And some artists saw this event this way.

Edvard Munch showed the dead Marat outside the bathroom.

There are several Puritan images in which the murdered man was dressed in outer clothing.

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

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

And finally, here’s an American interpretation - Sandro Birk’s painting “The Death of Manuel”

While in Toulouse, I ran into the museum, where I discovered “The Death of Marat” by Rock. After thinking about it, I decided to make a short post. The topic was popular, who hasn’t drawn this tribune! Well, of course, the most famous painting is David's.

Death of Marat. 1793. David. Royal Museum of Fine Arts. Brussels.

Well, I won’t talk about copyright copies and variants now. There have been so many of them that now every decent museum of fine arts in Europe has its own “The Death of Marat” à la David. If anyone is interested, you are welcome to the end of the post. There I posted all the options I found.

Charlotte Corday presenting a letter to Marat on July 13, 1793. 1793. Unknown artist of the French school. Louvre.

Death of Marat on July 13, 1793. 1794. Hauer. Lambine.

Murder of Marat. End of the 18th century. L. Brion de La Tour. Lambine.

Murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday. 1793. Unknown artist French. schools. Louvre.

Engravers did not lag behind artists. Not every citizen could afford to buy a painting. But the prints were cheap, so it is not surprising that they were very popular.

Death of Marat. National Library of France.

Death of the patriot Jean Paul Marat, member of the National Convention. National Library of France.

Murder of Marat. XVIII century Unknown artist. Carnival.

Interestingly, the composition of the next drawing is very similar to this one. And Charlotte's pose, and the dog, and the man with the pike, and the map in the background. And it’s clearly not a copy. Did both artists draw from eyewitness accounts?

Murder of Marat. Engraving by Berto after an original by Svebash-Devontin. National Library of France.

Murder of Marat. Engraving by Oke. National Library of France.

Murder of Marat. Unknown artist. Printmaking. National Library of France.

Artists, of course, had varying degrees of skill and awareness. Most of them had never seen Marat or Korda, so one wouldn’t expect much of a portrait resemblance. The composition also varied. But at least there was a bath in the picture, thank God. And the authors were quite sane people. And now I’m showing an engraving that directly demonstrates that everything was fine with the fenced grass in the 18th century.

Robespierre entering Marat's apartment. Engraving by unknown artist. Carnival.

Sorry, the edges are cut off a little, the whole thing doesn’t fit into the scanner.

Next is also an interesting little thing. Previously, I showed French paintings and engravings. And the artists were more or less aware of the matter. But foreigners also did not sit idly by. And the fact that he and Marat did not know each other was not so bad. Written under the picture Marat means Marat. And what is not similar at all, that’s how the artist saw it. He has every right! What was worse was that foreign masters could not believe that a gentleman could receive a lady while sitting in the bathtub. This is comme il faut! Authors working in England seemed to suffer especially from this.

Death of Marat. 1794. Engraving by Schiavonetti after a drawing by Pellegrini. The engraving was published in England. National Library of France.

The Second Joan of Arc or the Murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday of Caen on Saturday July 14, 1793. Engraving by Cruikshanka.

It’s interesting that not only is the composition incorrect, but also the date: July 14 instead of July 13.

The Germans made fun of it in their own way. Romanticism, sentimentalism, Gothic novels, scary fairy tales... Do you see the touching skeleton in the right corner?

Charlotte Corday killing the Jacobin Marat. German print. National Library of France.

The theme continued to be popular in the 19th century.

Murder of Marat. Engraving from Dulor's book "Historical Sketches of the Main Events of the Revolution" (1823 edition)

True, I personally think that this is still an engraving from the 18th century. But the next ones are definitely XIX.

Engraving from the series "55 scenes of the Revolution, Empire and Restoration". XIX century A.-F.-E. Filippo. Malmaison.

It is interesting that “Revolution” and “Restoration” are written with a capital letter, while “empire” is written with a small letter.

Charlotte Corday. 1860. P. J. A. Baudry. Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes.

Death of Marat. 1865. Gr. Y.-A. Durel-Marc from Thiers' book.

Murder of Marat. 1880. J. J. Weerts. Museum of Art and Industry André Dilijan in Roubaix.

Death of Marat. 1888. J. Rock. Augustinian Museum in Toulouse.

Even overseas, in Mexico, they painted Marat.

Death of Marat. 1875. S. Reboul.

Death of Marat (1793), Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels

As soon as the news of the murder of the revolutionary ideologist Marat spread, David rushed to the Rue des Cordeliers, where Marat lived, to capture the features of the deceased. The next day, the artist was asked not only to paint a memorable portrait of the famous journalist, but also to organize his funeral ceremony. And David accepted both offers. Being an ardent revolutionary at that time, David saw in Marat a modern hero-martyr and tried to emphasize this both in the portrait and in the design of the farewell ceremony. At the funeral, Marat's body was wrapped in white sheets, just as the bodies of dead Roman soldiers were wrapped. Although the artist retained a portrait likeness, in general the image idealized by David can be considered collective, personifying devotion to an idea and sacrifice.
The peculiarity of this masterpiece is that David spared the image depicted on the canvas from minor details, so every detail preserved here is of great importance. All objects - a wooden box, letters and writing instruments - are clearly visible and require careful consideration.
Maratu's desk was replaced by a wretched wooden box, roughly knocked together from old boards; it speaks of the hero's Spartan lifestyle in the best possible way. And the stack of blank paper lying under his wrist indicates that he did not have time to complete the work he started.
The stage is lit with a bright, almost theatrical light, giving sharp shadows, making the top sheet of paper lying on the box seem to protrude beyond the frame of the picture. On this sheet of paper, Marat wrote his last lines, and we can read them: “You must give this assignat to the mother of five children, whose father died in the fight for freedom.” The assignat itself - a check for a sum of money - lies on top of the unfinished note.
Impeccable in composition, the painting is painted with light transparent strokes, completely different from the smoothed texture of David’s historical paintings.
The full power of this painting can be appreciated simply by standing in front of it, although this bold, simple composition makes a great impression even in reproduction. David created an extremely convincing image here; with his work, the artist sought to assure the viewer that he really sees before him not only a hero, but a true martyr of the Great French Revolution.
David began working on his painting, in fact, a few hours after Marat’s death - it shocked him. In the dim light of a candle, bending over the corpse, the artist sketched the characteristic features of a revolutionary - a wide-cheeked face with half-closed eyes and a mouth twisted in pain.
He finished the painting within three months and solemnly presented it to the Convention with the words: “The people again called on their faithful friend... David, grab your brushes, avenge our Marat... I heard the voice of the people, I carried out their will.”
On the canvas, the artist depicts the hero, absolutely following the real circumstances of the murder. Marat sits in the bath the same way as two days before his death, when David visited him. Therefore, looking at the picture, one gets the feeling that a murder has just been committed, and the artist, having witnessed it, hastens to call the audience as witnesses. He refuses any allegorical attributes and does not seek to hide the squalor of the surrounding environment; rather, on the contrary, he emphasizes the modest life of a sick person, whom death overtook at such an unexpected moment.
The blow was struck by the young royalist Charlotte Corday. In his hand Marat holds her letter, stained with blood. Marat's body stands out sharply against a dark background. The turban with which Marat covered his head due to a chronic skin disease gives him a resemblance to an ancient hero. Marat's hand fell lifelessly to the floor, drawing the viewer's gaze to the pen - the main weapon of the revolutionary journalist. On a wooden box standing next to the bathtub, reminiscent of a tombstone, the artist wrote: “Marata - David.”
"The Death of Marat" is called the pinnacle of David's work. Never again did the artist create anything equal to this painting.

I had an article about a film dedicated to this plot:

Well, it’s a sad story, how a revolutionary killed a revolutionary.
And, indeed, I remember this picture from childhood. The situation with the murder in the bathroom seemed strange to me then. Now, of course, it is quite normal for an official to receive a visitor he does not know in the bathroom. But to the Soviet pioneer, brought up in conservative traditions, this seemed very strange. Only later did I find out that Marat suffered from a skin disease. That's why he sat in the bath almost continuously. But our teachers didn’t say anything about the disease. Because of this, the situation took on a strange sexual connotation.

A terrible death. A man in a bathtub, naked, feels helpless. I imagine: You are sitting in the bath. Some village fool chirps sweetly, talking about enemies of the people who must certainly be executed. Sweet idyll. And then suddenly the girl takes out a huge knife from her magnificent bust. The knife glitters eerily in the intimate semi-darkness. And the girl says: “Marat, you were wrong!” And then you realize that you are naked, and you don’t have any weapons nearby. Creepy.

In general, the French lived funny in those days. At least they died from anything, but not from boredom :)

Original taken from postmodernism in The Death of Marat - history and its artistic incarnations

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

And these posthumous words were attributed (or rather, drawn) to Marat by Jacques Louis David in his painting “The Head of Marat”:
“They couldn’t buy me, so they killed me.”

For example, in the painting of another Frenchman, Paul Jacques Baudry, the main character is the killer, not the victim. The painting is called accordingly - “Charlotte Corday”

And here is another picture that describes what happened - “The Murder of Marat”, by Antoine Joseph Wirtz.

In 1996 it was placed on a postage block stamp.

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

Another version - from Jules-Charles Avier:

Our artists, for example, Andrei Goncharov, also turned to this subject.

Vladimir Alekhin.

Immediately after the murder, many graphic drawings were published, the authorship of which I also could not determine. If suddenly someone can give me a hint, please do not refuse me the courtesy.

And some artists saw this event this way.

Edvard Munch showed the dead Marat outside the bathroom.

There are several Puritan images in which the murdered man was dressed in outer clothing.

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

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

And finally, here’s an American interpretation - Sandro Birk’s painting “The Death of Manuel”

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

Oil on canvas.

Original size: 165 × 128 cm

Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels

“The Death of Marat” (French: 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 film tells the story of the fate of Jean Paul Marat, a journalist for the radical newspaper “Friend of the People” and 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, 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 stand is the author’s dedication: “MARATO, David.” Clutched in Marat’s hand is a piece of paper with the text: “July 13, 1793, Marie Anne 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. The painting was extremely popular; there are several repetitions by the author.

Description of the painting by Jacques Louis David “The 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 last saw him. The painting is a kind of tribute to a close friend.

Marat suffered from a skin disease, and bath procedures helped him forget about the pain. The painting shows him in the bathroom, with a note in his hand from Charlotte Cordier, which he never had time to read. Charlotte was a supporter of democracy; the policy of violence and brutal murders carried out by Marat contradicted her beliefs. She hated him for it. Having come to his apartment, allegedly to denounce the deputies, she heard in response that they all should be sent to the guillotine. The woman could stand it no longer and killed Marat with one stab to the chest. And the note was just a pretext to break into Marat’s apartment. Charlotte was executed five days after the murder. She was sent to the guillotine.

Since the revolutionary Jacobin was a close friend of the artist, the picture turned out to be very emotional. On the cabinet pulled up next to the bathroom, “David-Maratu” is written, a kind of dedication to a friend. Marat’s face is distorted with pain, there is a bleeding wound on his chest, and there is a knife on the floor near the bathtub that the killer threw. The bathtub 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, who sent dissidents to the chopping block, he himself did not escape death. And it seems that only death can reconcile him with this world. David praised his friend, a great revolutionary, but in fact, he made the world talk about himself as a great artist.

"The Death of Marat"
Jacques Louis David

Jean Paul Marat is one of the leaders of the Great French Revolution, a radical journalist, and 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 his suffering. During one of them, on July 13, 1793, when he was looking through the proofs of his last journal, noblewoman Charlotte Corday came to him under the guise of a petitioner, whom he received right in the bathroom. After a 15-minute conversation, Charlotte stabbed him with the dagger she had brought with her. Marat died, having only managed to shout: “A moi, ma chère amie!” (To me, my friend!), addressing his roommate, who was in the next room.