Section du Théâtre-Français
| Jean-Paul Marat | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
24 May 1743 Boudry, Principality of Neuchâtel, Prussia (now part of Switzerland) |
| Died | 13 July 1793 (aged 50) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Alma mater | University of St. Andrews, MD |
| Occupation | Journalist, politician, physician, scientist |
| Political party |
Jacobin Club (1789–1790) Cordeliers Club (1790–1793) |
| Spouse(s) | Simonne Evrard |
| Parent(s) | Jean Mara, Louise Cabrol |
Jean-Paul Marat (French: [ʒɑ̃pɔl maʁa]; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist who became best known for his role as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution. His journalism became renowned for its fierce tone, uncompromising stance towards the new leaders and institutions of the revolution, and advocacy of basic human rights for the poorest members of society. He was one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution. He became a vigorous defender of the sans-culottes, publishing his views in pamphlets, placards and newspapers, notably his periodical L'Ami du peuple (Friend of the People), which helped make him their unofficial link with the radical, republican Jacobin group that came to power after June 1793.
Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition. In his death, Marat became an icon to the Jacobins as a revolutionary martyr, as portrayed in Jacques-Louis David's famous painting, The Death of Marat. For this assassination, Corday was executed four days later, on 17 July 1793.
Jean-Paul Marat was born in Boudry in the Prussian Principality of Neuchâtel, now part of Switzerland, on 24 May 1743. He was the second of nine children born to Jean Mara (Giovanni Mara), a native of Cagliari, Sardinia, and Louise Cabrol, a French Huguenot from Castres. His father was a Mercedarian "commendator" and religious refugee who converted to Calvinism in Geneva. At the age of sixteen, Marat left home in search of new opportunities, aware of the limited opportunities for outsiders. His highly educated father had been turned down for several college (secondary) teaching posts. His first stop was with the wealthy Nairac family in Bordeaux. After two years there he moved on to Paris where he studied medicine without gaining any formal qualifications. Moving to London in 1765, for fear of being "drawn into dissipation", he set himself up informally as a doctor, befriended the Royal Academician artist Angelica Kauffman, and began to mix with Italian artists and architects in the coffee houses around Soho. Highly ambitious, but without patronage or qualifications, he set about inserting himself into the intellectual scene with works on philosophy ("A philosophical Essay on Man", published 1773) and political theory ("Chains of Slavery", published 1774).Voltaire's sharp critique of "De l'Homme" (an augmented translation, published 1775–76), partly in defence of his protégé Helvétius reinforced Marat's growing sense of a widening gulf between the philosophes, grouped around Voltaire on one hand, and their 'opponents', loosely grouped around Rousseau on the other.
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