Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the sans-culottes, a radical voice, and published his views in pamphlets, placards and newspapers. His periodical L'Ami du peuple made him an unofficial link with the radical Jacobin group that came to power after June 1793.
Portrait by Joseph Boze, 1793
Commemorative plaque on the house where Marat was born, in Boudry in Switzerland
Marat by Jean-François Garneray
Anonymous portrait of Marat, c. 1793 (Musée Carnavalet)
The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.
The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back
Le Serment du Jeu de paume by Jacques-Louis David (c. 1791), depicting the Tennis Court Oath
The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the iconic event of the Revolution, still commemorated each year as Bastille Day