end Notes
Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat
[1] For a measured and detailed biography of Marat’s life and career, see Keith Michael Baker, Jean-Paul Marat: Prophet of Terror, University of Chicago Press, 2025
[2] Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, “The holy revolutionary”, in What Great Paintings Say, Vol 1,Taschen, 2003, at 346
[3] Simon Schama, “Airbrushing the Revolution”, in Simon Schama’s Power of Art, BBC Books, UK, 2006, at 214
[4] Hagen, op cit at 348
[5] When she travelled to Paris, it is said that she took with her a copy of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, in which an account of Brutus’s life appears: Janina Ramirez, Legenda: The Real Women Behind the Myths that Shaped Europe, W H Allen, UK, 2005, at 24
[6] Ramirez, op cit at 15ff
[7] According to that story, Judith was a beautiful Jewish woman who decapitated the drunken general Holofernes to prevent him from destroying her hometown
[8] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 217
[9] According to a popular story, as she stabbed Marat she cried “Villain, thy death shall precede theirs!”, referring to the people that he said he’d have guillotined
[10] Ramirez, op cit at 21
[11] Ramirez, op cit at 21; Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 1989, at 742ff
[12] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 226
[13] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 218
[14] The painting, since destroyed, is known only through a pencil sketch
[15] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 219 ff
[16] For a discussion of classical influences in the painting, see Michael Greenhalgh, “David's Marat Assassiné and its Sources”, The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol 19, The French Revolution in English Literature and Art Special Number (1989), 162
[17] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 223
[18] The banknote, incidentally, is possibly the first visual representation of paper money in Western art: Darius A. Spieth, “The Corsets Assignat in David’s Death of Marat”, Notes in the History of Art vol 25, No 3 (Spring), 22
[19] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 224 ff
[20] Ramirez, op cit at 20
[21] Ramirez, op cit at 25ff
[22] Ramirez, op cit at 25
[23] Ramirez, op cit at 21
[24] For discussion of the knotty issue of whether Corday was a blonde or a brunette, see Nina Rattner Gelbart, “The Blonding of Charlotte Corday”, Eighteenth Century Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, Hair (Fall, 2004) pp. 201-221
[25] This term was coined by writer Alphonse Lamartine in 1847
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[2] Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, “The holy revolutionary”, in What Great Paintings Say, Vol 1,Taschen, 2003, at 346
[3] Simon Schama, “Airbrushing the Revolution”, in Simon Schama’s Power of Art, BBC Books, UK, 2006, at 214
[4] Hagen, op cit at 348
[5] When she travelled to Paris, it is said that she took with her a copy of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, in which an account of Brutus’s life appears: Janina Ramirez, Legenda: The Real Women Behind the Myths that Shaped Europe, W H Allen, UK, 2005, at 24
[6] Ramirez, op cit at 15ff
[7] According to that story, Judith was a beautiful Jewish woman who decapitated the drunken general Holofernes to prevent him from destroying her hometown
[8] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 217
[9] According to a popular story, as she stabbed Marat she cried “Villain, thy death shall precede theirs!”, referring to the people that he said he’d have guillotined
[10] Ramirez, op cit at 21
[11] Ramirez, op cit at 21; Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 1989, at 742ff
[12] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 226
[13] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 218
[14] The painting, since destroyed, is known only through a pencil sketch
[15] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 219 ff
[16] For a discussion of classical influences in the painting, see Michael Greenhalgh, “David's Marat Assassiné and its Sources”, The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol 19, The French Revolution in English Literature and Art Special Number (1989), 162
[17] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 223
[18] The banknote, incidentally, is possibly the first visual representation of paper money in Western art: Darius A. Spieth, “The Corsets Assignat in David’s Death of Marat”, Notes in the History of Art vol 25, No 3 (Spring), 22
[19] Schama, Airbrushing, op cit at 224 ff
[20] Ramirez, op cit at 20
[21] Ramirez, op cit at 25ff
[22] Ramirez, op cit at 25
[23] Ramirez, op cit at 21
[24] For discussion of the knotty issue of whether Corday was a blonde or a brunette, see Nina Rattner Gelbart, “The Blonding of Charlotte Corday”, Eighteenth Century Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, Hair (Fall, 2004) pp. 201-221
[25] This term was coined by writer Alphonse Lamartine in 1847
© Philip McCouat 2026
Return to HOME