Here we see the Jacobin leader Jean Paul Marat dying. Marat suffered from a painful skin disease and found relief by sitting in a warm bath. It was there that he was assassinated by Charlotte Corday. Convinced that Marat was destroying France, she determined to stab him as Brutus had stabbed the tyrant Caesar.
In the painting Marat holds a letter from Corday. Her knife lies on the floor. The drama of the scene is highlighted by the memorial inscription, "To Marat." This was not a conventional subject for a painting, but the artist, Jacques Louis David, succeeded in creating a moving and forceful work.
David was well known as a fervent Jacobin, who later became a loyal supporter of Napoleon. David's classic style reflects the revolutionary changes that took place in painting, just as they occurred in politics. The refined elegance of the French court disappeared and made way for the realistic concerns of the common people.
