L’arrestation de Charlotte Corday

This painting depicts the arrest of Charlotte Corday. A major figure of the French Revolution, Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793, believing that she was acting to save France from political violence. Her deed made her both a criminal in the eyes of the Montagnard revolutionaries and, later, a tragic or heroic figure in certain 19th-century political and artistic memories. The work belongs to this Romantic fascination with the great scenes of the Revolution, emphasizing the dramatic tension of the moment when Corday is seized after her act.