Jacques-Louis David painted several of the neo-classicist key works. This is a study for the painting in the Louvre with the same title. Brutus, one of the Roman republic’s founders, sentenced his sons to death for treason. Brutus had himself enacted the law. The light catches his wife and daughters – he himself sits motionless. The theme has been viewed as a comment on revolutionary era politics and the conflict between patriotism and the rights of the individual.