French politician, physician, and journalist Jean-Paul Marat.

Jean-Paul Marat

(1743 - 1793)

Jean-Paul Marat was a successful doctor in London in the 1770s while also publishing philosophical and scientific works. As the editor of the newspaper The Friend of the People, he emerged as one of the most radical leaders of the revolution, chiding his readers in 1790, “Five or six hundred heads cut off would have assured your repose, freedom, and happiness.” He was stabbed to death in his bath in 1793; Jacques-Louis David began painting The Death of Marat days after the murder.

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Miscellany

At the start of the French Revolution, the physician Jean-Paul Marat began publishing an antimonarchical journal in which he called the king’s minister of finance “the cruelest adversary of freedom.” In 1790 the Marquis de Lafayette dispatched thousands of soldiers to arrest Marat, even stationing them on rooftops in case Marat, an aviation enthusiast, attempted to escape by balloon. While the legality of the warrant was being disputed, Marat wrote and published a pamphlet mocking these extravagant efforts before making a quiet escape.

Voices In Time

1791 | Paris

Vain Babbling

O my fatherland! What a terrible fate the future reserves for you! More

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