Comparison of Paul Baudry and Jacques-Louis David's paintings

Résumé du document

The two paintings that I am going to study are Charlotte Corday, painted by Paul Baudry in 1860, and in the Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David in 1793. It seems to me that those two paintings are extremely interesting to analyze side by side for several reasons; firstly and most obviously because they have the same subject: the murder of Jean-Paul Marat, a French revolutionary, member of the Convention, in the "Montagnard" side, and author of a popular newspaper, La voix du peuple. This allows us to study how a same event can be told in different ways.

Furthermore, Marat was and is not a consensual figure. When he was alive, and after his death, he was both deeply loved and hated. Therefore, the way this murder is shown depends on the opinion of the painter about Marat. This one is not a neutral character. Secondly, I've chosen those two paintings because they were not painted at the same time; this difference of context really influences the way in which the murder of Marat is pictured.

Extraits

[...] Here, because the character painted is a revolutionary, this link is even stronger. Marat is an excellent character to carry on a political ideology. But this political ideology also needs the support of the society to be widely spread. Bibliography: - Antoine Schnapper, “Painting during the Revolution”, French Painting 1774-1839 : the Age of Revolution, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Detroit and New-York - Lynn Hunt, The Imagery of Radicalism Politics, culture, and class in the French Revolution, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles - Simon Lee, David, Phaidon Press - William Vaughan, Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 5 of Simon Lee, David, Phaidon Press : Page 78 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 5 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 112 of Antoine Schnapper, “Painting during the Revolution”, French Painting 1774-1839 : the Age of Revolution, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Detroit and New-York : Page 8 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 10 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 5 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 109 of Antoine Schnapper, “Painting during the Revolution”, French Painting 1774-1839 : the Age of Revolution, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Reunion des Muses Nationaux, Detroit and New-York : Page 13 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 15 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 81 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 9 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 22 of William Vaughan and Helen Weston, David's the death of Marat, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press : Page 87 of Lynn Hunt, The Imagery of Radicalism Politics, culture, and class in the French Revolution, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984. [...]

[...] Death of Marat is almost a religious painting. It does not take place in a common place. We do not even see the background. As says William Vaughan,“David's painting represents a single moment of suspense. It makes no attempt to tell the story or describe the scene of Marat's assassination or to include any of the other characters who had been present. [ ] David's is a laconic transparent work, a history painting and an icon.”[12] On the contrary, by setting his painting in a room of which we can see all the elements, Baudry wants to create a rational and more credible space. [...]

[...] The murder of Marat, according to David, was a political one. Marat was hated because he was too good. But he has done nothing to deserve this, that's why he dies in peace. By this, we can draw a parallel between the figure of Marat and the one of a Christian martyr. His death was unfair. Marat is a hero because he has accepted to die for ideas, for values, and in fine, for the society and for the people. [...]

[...] This letter was a ruse, a way for Charlotte Corday to make Marat think that she was an ally, that she wanted to help him. And, according to David, while Marat was reading this list of names, she killed him. She took him by surprise; this is not at all a courageous crime. Marat was attacked while he was taking his bath (he was ill). Not representing Charlotte Corday, and insinuate her ex-presence by a knife and a letter is the sign that, for David, the murder of Marat is coward. [...]

[...] In Baudry's painting, the situation is different. The framing is bigger, we can see the whole room and, as we have said, there are not one, but two characters: Marat and Charlotte Corday. This one is given by Baudry a greater importance than Marat has. First because of the construction of the painting: Baudry chose a construction by lines, in the tradition of the classical painters. In his painting, most of the lines are horizontal (Marat corpse, the bath, the shelf, the chair, etc.), except of the one made up of Charlotte Corday's body (and this only vertical line is underlined by the verticals stripes of her dress). [...]