The Death of Marat

There is not much left of the house where Jean-Paul Marat was murdered, but you are standing roughly on the spot where it once stood. Close your eyes for a moment and picture the summer of 1793, when these streets were loud with revolutionary fervor and everyone had an opinion on who deserved to live or die.

Marat was one of the most feared journalists of his time. Through his newspaper L'Ami du peuple, he called for radical equality and harsh punishment for the enemies of the Revolution. The poor working people of Paris, the sans-culottes, loved him for it. His opponents absolutely dreaded him.

On 13 July 1793, a young woman named Charlotte Corday knocked on his door. Marat was chronically ill and spent much of his time working in a medicinal bath to soothe his painful skin condition. Corday told him she had information about traitors. He let her in. She stabbed him in the chest, and he died almost instantly.

His friend, the painter Jacques-Louis David, immortalized him in the famous painting you can see in the attached photo. David portrayed Marat as a serene martyr, pen still in hand.