Vatican." The American minister to France, Thomas Jefferson, wrote that the painting was the best work at the Salon of 1787, and that the painting was "superb". The painting was sufficiently successful that David showed it again at the Salon of 1791; it still attracted interest due to the changed political environment, as heroic stories from an earlier age fit the mood of the early French Revolution. An 1826 exhibition intended to raise money for the Greek War of Independence displayed much of David's work at the Galerie Lebrun, including The Death of Socrates. The exhibition attracted much interest due to a backlash from the post-Bourbon Restoration royalist government, which disliked David and had refused permission for his body to be buried in France, albeit more for his Revolutionary-era paintings than Socrates. Provenance After Charles-Michel Trudaine de la Sablière and his brother were executed in 1794 during the Reign of Terror, the painting passed to his brother's wife Louise Micault de Courbeton, Madame Trudaine de Montigny. The painting passed between several people in inheritances and private sales, notably including Olivier de Saint-Georges de Vérac and his wife from 1809–1870. In 1931, the painting was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it has stayed since. Notes References External links The Death of Socrates at the Metropolitan Museum of Art The Death of Socrates on Google Art Project , an 1892 translation of the Phaedo'' 1787 paintings History paintings Neoclassical paintings Paintings about suicide Paintings by Jacques-Louis David Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cultural depictions of Socrates Cultural depictions of Plato Paintings based on literature