The Louvre’s Jacques-Louis David Retrospective Offers a Fresh Perspective on the French Master
Sarah Belmont | ARTnews | 8th October 2025
David lived in interesting times – the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Bourbon restoration. These politics animate his art, and he used his art as a political tool. Not surprisingly, Caravaggio’s dramatic style was a major influence. Nowhere is this clearer than in his The Death of Marat, an iconic image of the Revolution. Marat suffered ill-health in life but in David’s rendering of his death, he is exalted as a martyr. Not just a personal elegy to a friend, David’s work is also “potent propaganda”.