Revolutionary Art for Revolutionary Men

            Throughout the history of the world, there has always been a portion of the population, male and female, that has been revered and remembered for their respective contributions to society. Many were enshrined through great works of art such as statues and mausoleums. However, another way these people can be revered and remembered is through painting and the French artist, Jacques Louis David, attempted to do just that during the French Revolution. As a painter during the French Revolution, his job became extremely political and this was shown through the various subjects the Jacques Louis David used in his painting and drawings. So, many French revolutionaries as well as what they did appear in most of his works. However, his goal was not only to paint the men; his goal was also to paint the ideals of the French Revolution. Thus, I propose that through the paintings of the Death of Socrates, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and His Wife (Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836), The Tennis Court Oath, 20th June 1789 (1791), The Death of Marat (1793), Napoleon Crossing the Alps at the St Bernard Pass, 20th May 1800, The Oath of the Horatii, Leonidas at Thermopylae (1814) David was attempting to show what the ideals of the French Revolution are, who they were propagated by and the similarities between these ideals and the idealized past of ancient Greece and Rome.

Death of Socrates, Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1787

 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and His Wife (Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836), Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1788

In this painting, David portrayed the noted chemist and scientist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife. Just as in the previous painting, David was attempting to show that the French Revolution encouraged, for a time, the advancement of rationality. Unfortunately, though, just as Socrates was wrongfully executed, Lavoisier was also wrongfully executed. Perhaps this painting, like the death of Socrates, was also meant by David to say that even republics can get it wrong at times.

The Tennis Court Oath, 20th June 1789 (1791), Jacques Louis David, Drawing, 1791

In this drawing, David portrayed when the third estate in the French Estates General walked out on the Estates General and formed their own government. David sees this event as drawing on yet another ideal of the French Revolution: Egalite. In the original Estates General of the French monarchy, the third estate was given very little power to do anything even though they were the largest group in the country. The representatives saw this and simply could not stand for such inequality so they walked out on the meeting and formed their own council, which became known as the National Assembly eventually.

  

The Death of Marat, Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1793

In this painting, David depicted the death of one of the French Revolutions great political theorist, Jean-Paul Marat. He was a champion of the Jacobins, who were a radical sect of the Revolution, and he was assassinated by a Girondist sympathizer, another faction in the Revolution. His fierce support for the lower members of the third estate, the sans-coulettes, who advocated for political representation in the French government, and his subsequent assassination led to him becoming something of a martyr to the lower members of the third estate. David here portrayed Marat on the brink of death, which immortalized the egalitarian nature of the French Revolution.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps at the St Bernard Pass, 20th May 1800, Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1800-1801

            In this painting, David portrayed the great French general, Napoleon, crossing over the Alps into Italy for a military campaign against the Austrian-controlled states of northern Italy. In this painting, David portrayed Napoleon has heroic and strong, both of which were valued by revolutionists around France. Also the fact that the subject of the painting was a military hero in France could have possibly been designed by David to serve as something of a recruitment poster for the armies of France.

The Oath of the Horatii, Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1784

            In this painting, David used a legend from ancient Rome to propose and spread another ideal of Revolutionary France: honor in service to the state. According to legend, the three men about to receive swords were bound by honor to fight another family in a neighboring town but the women on the right of the painting were related by either marriage or blood to the other family. David wanted here to highlight that even though the men on the left knew they were going to end up depriving one of the women on the right of a family member or husband, they still had the duty to fight and kill the other family because of their higher calling of honor. David wanted the audience to think the same way about the state of France; the people must be willing to fight and die for their state over all else, even family.

Leonidas at Thermopylae, Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1814

Again, David went back to ancient times, specifically Ancient Greece, to find a subject worthy of the French Revolution. In this painting, the 300 Spartans and their king, Leonidas, are portrayed in somewhat of a jumble in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. According to history, this is where the Spartans held off the superior Persians for some time until a Greek traitor sealed the Spartans to death. David used this incident to arouse a sense of commonality with these heroic Spartans among the French people and to incorporate that same sense of bravery in the hearts of the French in face of the ever-increasing resistance to French rule across Europe after the first fall of Napoleon.