On display: one hundred works including The death of Marat
Until January 26, 2026, the Musée du Louvre celebrates the greatness of Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) with one of the most complete and ambitious monographic exhibitions dedicated to him in recent decades. The exhibition interweaves invention and revolutionary epic with biographical elements through one hundred works - among which stands out the original version of the famous The death of Marat. David is certainly the father of French painting, positioned between a learned neoclassicism, so dear to the pre-revolutionary Bourbon court and a proto-romantic painting that sees the human being as the driving force to break free from the stagnation of the Ancien Régime.
In the exhibition, invention and revolutionary epic intertwine with the biographical narrative
A painting of liberation, then, born from an era that witnessed the greatest social transformation ever: David as precursor and innovator, genius of his time but also a convinced supporter of the Revolution and its ideals. Called upon - along with others, of course - to depict the indomitable spirit of those events through art that is at once strongly communal and elitist, his painting is the triumph of the human being who, thanks to an unshakable morality, frees the homeland from the now unbearable abuses of history. An exalted and aristocratic painting, therefore, now rediscovered through a deep study of the austere formalism and inevitability of ancient myth - rigorously structured and with a precise use of light - yet charged with an emotional pathos entirely congenial to him, that spark of subversion that animates many hearts, fueled by a measured theatricality he borrows from the Italian art of the High Renaissance.
Acclaimed throughout Europe, David shared everything during the revolutionary period, joys and sorrows, victories and contradictions
This is where his absolute greatness lies, before and after: in his ability to narrate the tragedy of intense emotions and the passion of gestures destined for immortality through the ethical reading of incorruptible art. Certainly acclaimed throughout Europe, during the revolutionary period David shared everything: joys and sorrows, victories and contradictions , except for the tragic end that befell many of his companions, perhaps thanks to the magnetic respect that had always surrounded him. However, he was forced into exile after the Restoration, not forgiven on the one hand for the violent political extremisms of the Terror as an active participant alongside Saint-Just, Danton and Robespierre (among other accusations, also regicide for the deaths of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette), and on the other for his friendship and admiration for Napoleon, who understood that David was the only artist of his time capable of immortalizing his deeds.
He was also a friend of Napoleon, who understood that David was the only artist of his time capable of immortalizing his exploits
