The Death of Marat

David painted his murdered friend, the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, slumped in the bath where he was stabbed, transforming a grisly crime into a secular pietà. The spare composition and cool light lend it the gravity of a martyr's icon. It is the great image of the French Revolution.

The Death of Marat

Jacques-Louis David

  • Date1793
  • MovementNeoclassicism
  • WhereRoyal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels
  • RegionLow Countries · South