# The Death of Socrates

- By: Jean Francois Pierre Peyron (French, 1744–1814)
- Date: 1786-1787
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: height 98 cm, width 133.5 cm, height 114.4 cm, width 149.7 cm
- Culture: French
- Museum: [SMK – National Gallery of Denmark](https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMS7066)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/smk/rn301462c_KMS7066-crop.tif.jp2/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

At the Salon, the exhibition held by the French monarchs at the Louvre, two leading – and competing – artists both submitted a painting of this theme in 1787. Most agreed that Peyron suffered defeat at the hands of his competitor, J.L. David (1748-1825), but even so Peyron’s picture became a principal work within French pre-revolution art. Motif Peyron was a favourite of the monarch’s regime, and this work was commissioned by the king’s Minister for Culture. And indeed the powers that be had little cause to be offended at the scene depicted; democratic Athens committing judicial murder with the death of the philosopher Socrates. Socrates dies a hero’s death, for just before he drinks the deadly draught of hemlock he speaks to his students of the immortality of the soul, and with his steadfast devotion to the teacher’s calling he constitutes an exemplum virtutis, a paragon of virtue – a frequently seen theme in the art of the period. Composition The composition meets the standards prevalent at the time with its relief-like arrangement of the space and figures: The back wall of the room runs parallel to the surface of the picture, and all characters are viewed from…