Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) was the leading painter of Neoclassicism and the artist who pulled French taste away from Rococo prettiness towards classical austerity and heightened moral feeling.

He was also a political actor: a member of the National Convention, a friend of Robespierre, and one of the deputies who voted for the execution of Louis XVI. His art became state propaganda, first for the Revolution and then for Napoleon. His technique lives on sculptural clarity, sharp contour and stage-like compositions built for maximum rhetorical impact.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps exists in five autograph versions painted between 1801 and 1805. The image is deliberate fiction: Napoleon actually crossed the Great St Bernard Pass in fine weather, on a mule, and refused to sit for the portrait. David worked from a bust and had his own son pose on a ladder to get the rider's posture right.