Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
A mount used as an argument
Some equestrian pictures record a rank. This one records a passage. The title names the St Bernard Pass and the date 20th May 1800, putting the crossing in the name rather than leaving it to be inferred, and that fixes the animal's function. It is not a parade platform and not a racehorse. It is transport across a mountain, presented as a feat.
What the record holds
The date of creation is 1801, the year after the date named in the title, and the location is the Château de Malmaison at Rueil-Malmaison. The dimensions are 260 x 221 cm. Neoclassicism is the style term on the record and French the nationality; the measured colour family of the image is yellow. Landscape and Alps headings are filed alongside Animal Art > Horse.
The same phrase, twice in this catalogue
2 records here carry the phrase crossing the Alps in the title, by different painters and roughly half a century apart. Setting them beside each other is a matter of comparing two catalogue entries. Nothing in either one reports how the picture was received, or by whom.
Sources
7 references- David, Jacques-Louis — Getty ULAN
French painter, 1748-1825
- Jacques-Louis David — Wikipedia
Jacques-Louis David (French: [ʒaklwi david]; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked
- Napoleon Crossing the Alps — Wikidata
description: series of paintings by Jacques-Louis David in 5 versions; inception: 1801; dimensions: 260 × 221 cm; collection: Château de Malmaison
- Napoleon Crossing the Alps — Wikipedia
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (also known as Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass or Bonaparte Crossing the Alps; listed as Le Premier Consul franchissant les Alpes au col du Grand Saint-Bernard) is a series of five oil on canvas equestrian port
- smarthistory.khanacademy.org — reference for "Napoleon Crossing the Alps"
Authoritative source for this work (smarthistory.khanacademy.org).
- khanacademy.org — reference for "Napoleon Crossing the Alps"
Authoritative source for this work (khanacademy.org).
- jstor.org — reference for "Napoleon Crossing the Alps"
Authoritative source for this work (jstor.org).
