Bonaparte Crossing the Alps

Common card · No. 364888

Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (sometimes called Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which is also the title of Jacques-Louis David's better-known version of the subject) is an 1848–1850 oil painting by French artist Paul Delaroche. The painting depicts Napoleon Bonaparte leading his army through the Alps on a mule,[I] a journey Napoleon and his army of soldiers made in the spring of 1800 in an attempt to surprise the Austrian army in Italy. Several versions of this painting exist: in the Louvre-Lens and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England. Queen Victoria owned a small version of it. The work was inspired by Jacques-Louis David's series of five paintings of Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801–1805), which present a glorified vision of Napoleon "calm on a spirited horse" rather than a mule, crossing Great St. Bernard Pass.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Paul Delaroche, Public domain