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The Death of Socrates

1787
Not on view

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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 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
  • Object Number: 31.45
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836), Jacques Louis David French, Oil on canvas
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836)
Jacques Louis David
1788
The Massacre of the Innocents, François Joseph Navez Belgian, Oil on canvas
The Massacre of the Innocents
François Joseph Navez
1824
Copy after David's "The Death of Socrates", Anonymous, French, 19th century French, Graphite, pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash
Copy after David's "The Death of Socrates"
Anonymous, French, 19th century
Jacques Louis David
19th century
The Death of Socrates, Jacques Louis David (and studio?) French, Pen and black ink, with brush and gray wash, over black chalk; lightly squared in black chalk
The Death of Socrates
Jacques Louis David
ca. 1782
Crito, Jacques Louis David French, Black chalk, stumped, heightened with white chalk; squared in black chalk
Crito
Jacques Louis David
ca. 1786–87

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