The Death of Socrates

The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1931

What to notice

Track the chain of gestures from Socrates’ raised hand to the offered cup and grieving companions; crisp contours make moral resolve collide with visible sorrow.

Discover

Jacques Louis David painted The Death of Socrates in 1787. Socrates reaches toward the cup while continuing to teach, and the sharply ordered gestures of his grieving companions turn a classical account of death into a model of moral resolve.