Brion De La Tour - Original Drawing. "the Arrest Of Charlotte Corday, The Assassination Of Marat"

Louis BRION DE LA TOUR (1763-1823) Original drawing. The arrest of Charlotte Corday or the assassination of Marat Pen and brown ink, gray wash, watercolor, enhanced with white and gray gouache. 1793 Extraordinary drawing representing the arrest of Charlotte Corday after she stabbed Jean-Paul Marat, on July 13, 1793, in his bath, at his home, rue de l'École de Médecine. The still bloody knife fell to the floor next to the bathtub. The work is annotated in black ink, at the top, by Brion De la Tour: “Marat stabbed by the girl Corday” Format: 210 x 260 mm ___________________________________________________ The artist organized his composition in two parts: on the right the murderer is arrested and taken out of the room; she will be executed four days later. On the left, Marat is lifted from the bath while his companion Simone Evrard is weeping at his side. Brion de la Tour made an aquatint engraving in the opposite direction to this drawing. This was announced in the Journal de Paris on 28 Pluviôse Year II (February 15, 1794): “Having been unable to corrupt me, they assassinated me.” Amaury Duval’s La Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique described this engraving (along with that of Le Pelletier) as being: “of a good composition and of great effect. These are the ones that render with the greatest precision and accuracy the events they represent. "Despite these assertions by Amaury Duval, it seems that the scene of the assassination is a little different from Brion de la Tour's representation. Charlotte Corday had time to escape and was only arrested in the antechamber by the commissioner Laurent Bas before being taken away. The artist has here dramatized the event by representing the arrest and the dead Marat, removed from the bathtub.