Jean Paul Marat | Autograph manuscript draft letter of resignation from the National Convention, 1793

Jean Paul Marat

Autograph manuscript draft letter, to his fellow members of the National Convention

denouncing the infiltration of the Committee for Public Safety by counter-Revolutionaries, confirming that he had asked for the arrest of 5 members ("...des membres 5 dénoncés par les autorités constituées de Paris..."), and announcing his own suspension from the Convention until their trial is completed, scattered autograph corrections, annotated in the margin ("2 Cop", and "ordre du jour pur et simple/insertion au Bulletin"), 2 pages, folio, integral blank (endorsed "Lettre du C. Marat"), Paris, 2 June 1793, clean tear (c.50mm) to margin, short fold tear

"...Peut-être m'était-il permis, à moi le martyr éternel de la liberté, depuis trop longtemps déchiré par la calomnie, d'être jaloux de cet honneur..."

AN IMPORTANT LETTER BY MARAT AT A DECISIVE MOMENT IN THE REVOLUTION, THE INSURRECTION OF JUNE 1793 WHICH SAW THE PURGE OF THE GIRONDINS. Marat had for several months been pressing for the dismissal of the moderate Girondins from the Revolutionary government, under the popular rallying cry "Nous sommes trahis!", especially after his own impeachment and acquittal in April 1793. On 2 June the National Guard marched on the Convention, demanding at gunpoint the arrest of Girondin members. Marat's particular target was the executive: the Commission of Twelve and the Girondists within the Committee for Public Safety. He proffered his resignation, in dramatic terms, at the moment of his victory, although he remained a powerful and influential figure with the victorious Jacobins. His worsening skin condition in any case forced his retirement to home and his medicinal bathtub, where he was assassinated just six weeks after writing this letter.

AUTOGRAPH MATERIAL BY MARAT IS RARE ON THE MARKET. This letter was read to the Convention on 3 June and was subsequently printed in both the Bulletin de la Convention and Marat's own newspaper, the Publiciste de la République française.

PROVENANCE:

Christie's, London, 29 May 1986, lot 67