Paul Spooner has just finished a great new piece called ‘The Life of Marat’, in which we find Marat sitting in his bath (fashioned from a piece of lead donated by a neighbour), turning the pages of ‘The People’s Friend’ – the cover of which has a rather gruesome picture of Charlotte Corday. On careful inspection the viewer will see that Spooner has also made the mirror image of Marat, his newspaper and the duck upside down in the bath.
Spooner’s inscription on the piece is as follows: ‘Jean Paul Marat’ – Born in Switzerland, but thrown out for being spotty, is seen here taking a bath in Revolutionary France, he is reading an English version of his newspaper, “L’Ami du Peuple”.
Simon Schama has got wind of this and is putting on his own programme about the original painting of Marat in his bath by David in this week’s BBC2 programme, ‘The Power of Art’. (Friday 10th November – 7.30pm)
I believe the painting ‘The death of Marat’ is in Musee Royaux Des Beaux-arts De Belgique, Brussels. Jacques Louis David springs to mind. Marat was a fantastic man and met a very untimely death at the hands of a female, for what reason I would love to know. Regards aye.