The Death of Young Bara [SEP] collection
The Death of Young Bara
The Death of Young Bara, Joseph Bara or The Death of Bara is an incomplete 1794 painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David, now in the musée Calvet. Joseph Bara, a young drummer in the army of the French First Republic, killed by the Vendéens. He became a hero and martyr of the French Revolution and – with "The Death of Marat" and "The Last Moments of Michel Lepeletier" – the painting formed part of a series by David showing such martyrs
Joseph Bara
François Joseph Bara, also written Barra (30 July 1779 in Palaiseau – 7 December 1793 in Jallais), was a young French republican drummer boy at the time of the Revolution.
Life, death, and legacy.
Bara was in fact too young to join the army, but attached himself to a unit fighting counter revolutionaries in Vendée. After his death General J.-B. Desmarres gave this account, by letter, to the Convention. "Yesterday this courageous youth, surrounded by brigands, chose to perish