French school circa 1820 - Lot 46

French school circa 1820 Socrates drinking the hemlock Paper mounted on canvas 42.3 x 32.3 cm. Socrates did not commit suicide in the modern sense. Condemned to death in 399 BC by the Athens court for "impiety" and "corruption of youth", he refused to flee despite being offered the opportunity. Our painting is obviously to be compared with Jacques-Louis David's 1787 masterpiece The Death of Socrates, one of the most emblematic paintings of French neoclassicism. The painting depicts the last minutes of Socrates, condemned to death in 399 BC by the Athenians for corrupting youth. Surrounded by his weeping disciples, the philosopher, calm and dignified, reaches for the cup of hemlock presented to him by the executioner. Commissioned on the eve of the French Revolution, the painting became a republican symbol of resistance to injustice.