Napoleon Crossing the Alps

This 1801 portrait, known also as "Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass," is a magnificent propaganda piece and portrait of authority. Famously, Napoleon refused to sit for the painting, arguing, “Nobody knows if the portraits of the great men resemble them; it is enough that their genius lives there.” All David had to work from was an earlier portrait (the then-First Consul of the Republic sat briefly for the artist in 1797) and the uniform Napoleon had worn at the Battle of Marengo, which occurred immediately after the crossing depicted in this work. With the subject himself unavailable, one of David’s sons dressed up in the uniform and perched on top of a ladder. It is believed that Napoleon himself made the crossing itself on a mule. But still, it is the most successful portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte that was ever made. Classic.