Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Jacques-Louis David · Rococo & Neoclassicism
- Artist
- Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825)
- Date
- 1801
- Dimensions
- 260 x 221 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Château de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France
Napoleon Crossing the Alps commemorates Napoleon Bonaparte’s crossing of the Great St Bernard Pass with his army in May 1800. David shows the young First Consul on a rearing horse, pointing upwards towards the summit, his cloak whipped by the wind.
A closer look
The image is pure propaganda. In reality Napoleon crossed the pass a few days after his troops, riding a sure-footed mule in fine weather. He told David he wished to be shown “calm on a fiery horse”, and did not sit for the portrait. Carved into the rocks at the bottom are the names of Bonaparte, Hannibal and Charlemagne, the great commanders who crossed the Alps before him. Soldiers and cannon struggle up the slope behind.
