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Jacques Louis David French
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 634
In this landmark of neoclassical painting from just before the French Revolution, David took up a classical story of resisting unjust authority in a sparse, friezelike composition. The Greek philosopher Socrates (469–399 BCE) was convicted of impiety by the Athenian courts; rather than renounce his beliefs, he died willingly, expounding on the immortality of the soul before drinking poisonous hemlock. Through a network of gestures and expressions, David’s figures act out the last moments of Socrates’s life. He is about to grasp the cup of hemlock, offered by a disciple who cannot bear to witness the event. David consulted antiquarian scholars to create an archeologically exacting image, including details of furniture and clothing. His inclusion of Plato at the foot of the bed, however, deliberately references not someone present at Socrates’s death but rather the author whose text, Phaedo, preserved this ancient story.
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Fig. 1. Herm of Socrates, from a Greek original of the second half of the 4th century B.C., marble, 54.8 cm (Musei Capitolini, Rome; MC 0508). Possible source for David's figure.
Fig. 2. Infrared reflectogram (see Technical Notes)
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Fig. 3. Picture in frame: overall
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Fig. 4. Painting in frame: corner
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Fig. 5. Painting in frame: angled corner
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Fig. 6. Profile drawing of frame. W 7 11/16 in. 19.6 cm (T. Newbery)
Artwork Details
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Title: The Death of Socrates
Artist: Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels)
Date: 1787
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 51 x 77 1/4 in. (129.5 x 196.2 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1931
Accession Number: 31.45
Learn more about this artwork
The Death of Socrates: New Discoveries
Technical examination of Jacques Louis David’s masterpiece reveals that the refinements seen in the artist’s preparatory drawings didn’t end when he began painting—rather, they continued through all stages of its execution.
Prisons Real and Imagined
In Jacques Louis David’s The Death of Socrates (1787), a parable of principle on the eve of the French Revolution.
Changing the Conversations among Our European Paintings
Curator Keith Christiansen takes a fresh look at Jacques Louis David's The Death of Socrates after its new installation in gallery 631.
Creating Access beyond metmuseum.org: The Met Collection on Wikipedia
Chief Digital Officer Loic Tallon reflects on the impact The Met's Open Access initiative has had in making the Museum's collection one of the most accessible on the internet.
Copying Valentin
Curator Keith Christiansen highlights the aspects of Valentin de Boulogne's work that Neoclassical painter Jacques Louis David included in his own pictures.
Michelangelo and More: Works of the Week Honoring 100 Years of Drawings and Prints at The Met
Assistant Curator Allison Rudnick presents this fall's highlights in the ongoing Work of the Week series celebrating the Department of Drawings and Prints' remarkable collection.
Connections: Heroes
Security manager Jose Rivero contemplates the different types of hero archetypes, from comic book super heroes to religious figures.
Connections: Hands
Educator Alice Schwarz ruminates about how one's hands give away information about a person.
Timeline of Art History
Essay
Neoclassicism
Essay
The Legacy of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Essay
The Salon and The Royal Academy
Chronology
France, 1600-1800 A.D.
Chronology
France, 1600-1800 A.D.
Museum Publications
A Time of Crisis: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 78, no. 2 (Fall 2020)
One Met. Many Worlds.
The New Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 7, Europe in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Spanish)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Russian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Portuguese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Korean)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Japanese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Italian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (German)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (French)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Chinese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Arabic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman
Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Greek Art From Prehistoric to Classical: A Resource for Educators
French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution
European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue
Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections
A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Art = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History
Related Artworks
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- By Jacques Louis David
- European Paintings
- Canvas
- Oil paint
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- From A.D. 1600–1800
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836)
Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels)
1788
The Massacre of the Innocents
François Joseph Navez (Belgian, Charleroi 1787–1869 Brussels)
1824
The Death of Socrates
Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels) (and studio?)
ca. 1782
Copy after David's "The Death of Socrates"
Anonymous, French, 19th century
19th century
Crito
Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels)
ca. 1786–87
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