Die Bergung der Leiche Jean-Paul Marats 1875

Hans Canon painted ‘Die Bergung der Leiche Jean-Paul Marats’, or ‘The Removal of Jean-Paul Marat's Body’ sometime in the nineteenth century. Canon’s painting, whose title translates to ‘The Removal of Jean-Paul Marat's Body,’ enters into a longer history of representing the body of the assassinated revolutionary, Jean-Paul Marat. In Canon’s version, Marat is placed in the hands of the working class, seemingly being carried away from the scene of the crime, a crime committed by a woman. Consider the politics of gender at play here, and the way the artist has chosen to represent a woman’s violence against the body of the male intellectual and revolutionary. The rough brushstrokes and somber palette evoke not the glory of martyrdom, but the grim reality of political violence and its aftermath. The painting encourages us to reflect on how historical events are remembered and represented, and the complex interplay of gender, violence, and political upheaval.