A sweeping golden cloak, pristine military attire and commanding a white stallion while staring directly into the viewers eyes as he points his army towards victory. That is how Napoleon Bonaparte is portrayed in the famous, Napoleon Crossing the Alps painting. The artist behind this is Jacques-Louis David, known for painting in the Neo-Classicism style, in which contemporary figures were painted to resemble classical ideal forms and mythological heroes.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps 1800 – 1801 Jacques-Louis David
For Napoleon, this painting was more than just a symbol of materialistic narcissism. It was propaganda.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps depicts what the title denotes, Napoleon leading French Infantry over the Swiss Alps to battle the Austrians. At the time of this painting (1800 – 1801), Napoleon’s rise to power was rapidly accelerating. With the horrors of The Terror having only ended a few years before, to many French people Napoleon was their saviour. He appeared to be pulling France out of a decade of struggle and into a period promising prosperity. At this moment in history, it seemed clear that Napoleon, both politically and militarily, was the victor.
However, as our perception of history evolves with each generation and event that occurs, so does society’s view of historical figures.
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps
1848 – 1850 Paul Delaroche
Almost fifty years later, another painting depicting the same moment in history was created. Paul Delaroche was commissioned to paint this exact moment, but in the emerging style of Realism. Bonaparte Crossing the Alps placed Napoleon on the back of a struggling mule, his uniform covered in a coat for warmth as he is guided through hazardous terrain with his infantry following closely. Lacking the heroicness of its predecessor, it is a gritty, more realistic depiction of the event. At the time of this painting’s completion in 1850, thirty-six years had passed since Napoleon’s ultimate exile to a British-owned island, and twenty-nine years since his death.
Napoleon had lost, and the juxtaposition between these two paintings reflects his fall.
Although he will always be known as a genius military strategist, the apotheosis that was once associated with his name has been stripped away over time and in history. Delaroche’s painting proves this. No longer is an idealised version of Napoleon accepted in today’s society; his name now seems to lend itself to ‘short jokes’ and images of pomposity. At his peak, no one could have imagined that this revered icon would be viewed by history as a brilliant yet deeply flawed man.
When we spoke in class of revolutions and how they are perceived overtime, it became evident that the outcome ultimately determined the way in which they are viewed. This assumption does not only apply to revolutions, but to any event or figure that history has deemed notable enough to remember. Napoleon Bonaparte lost. It is partly because of this that history has painted him as a failed pretender to absolute rule. If he were to have won, our textbooks may have described him as a very different man. For as Winston Churchill once said, “history is written by the victors.”
Bibliography:
- Ben, Politt. “David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Article).” Khan Academy. Khan Academy. Accessed June 12, 2020. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/rococo-neoclassicism/neo-classicism/a/david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps.
- History.com Editors. “Napoleon Bonaparte.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, November 9, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/france/napoleon.
- Liverpool Museum. “’Napoleon Crossing the Alps’, Paul Delaroche.” Liverpool museums, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081122090447/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/landing/napoleoncrossingthealps.aspx.
- Royal Collection, Victoria & Albert: Art & Love. “Hippolyte Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) – Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) Crossing the Alps.” Royal Collection Trust, 2010. https://www.rct.uk/collection/404874/napoleon-bonaparte-1769-1821-crossing-the-alps.
It’s ironic that you chose “History is written by the victors” as a Churchill quote, because that same quote is also attributed to many other people, including Napoleon himself. Churchill is a little like Einstein: the internet would have you believe that every witticism was first said by one of the two. Napoleon surely had his fair share of wisdom, but he lost, so we don’t quote him.
We can’t know everything about history. Maybe the only way we can honour the underappreciated dead is by realising that most of the world’s brilliance isn’t taught in history classes, and to admit defeat that we will never really know everything everyone has achieved.
I found your comparison between different depictions of Napoleon interesting and it raised some important points about how we look at significant figures over time. The glorification of such figures has become particularly relevant recently with the heightened awareness of statutes that often celebrate colonialists and other dubious characters. Although Delaroche didn’t push David’s painting into a river, or cover it in red paint, he did challenge it and present it in a new light for a new generation – just as current protests against some monuments are doing. History is written by the victors which means many other stories are obscured. I think people are becoming increasingly aware of this and are challenging the often one-sided narrative the victors present.
I think it’s really interesting looking at how France views Napoleon compared to the rest of the world. From what I’ve seen, the French seem to hold a sense of pride regarding Napoleon’s victories, and he isn’t the same comical or “stock loser” figure that we anglophones might see him as. Obviously both the painters you discussed were French and they had vastly different interpretations of him, but modern France still seems to remember Napoleon for all his victories rather than his devastating losses. A similar thing can be seen with Alexander the Great, whom, to this day, Greeks and Macedonians fight over for claim. I agree with you when you say “the outcome ultimately determined the way in which they are viewed”, but it’s always fascinating looking at the way the world as a whole views an event or a historical figure, and the way that particular nation views them.
Thank you for an interesting post!!
I loved the comparison between the two works and the idea of how different outcomes the historical image of Napoleon could have been. There is so much more you could go into (as an art history nerd as well I’m sure you struggled with getting so much into the small word count) so I hope you do something along these lines for a future, longer, project!
Our perception of history is fluid and I feel that this post truly demonstrates how applicable that is. I like how this post addresses just how rapidly our opinion of history can change. There is a trend to take a very black and white perception of history with unequivocal good and bad, whereas in reality accurate history is often more dialectical. The author Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases transcribed a quote from Napoleon that “history is a set of lies agreed upon” which links quite closely to the one attributed to Churchill. Although I do not believe this is entirely true, the lens we use to gaze at our history is certainly tinted by both the victors and the current government. I do feel like recently, particularly with the BLM movement, people are beginning to re-examine history. The tearing down of statues to those involved in the slave trade is certainly an example of a reconsideration of history, displaying the application of a more critical lens to figures on the “right” side of history. We’ve seen this with George Washington, who supported the slave trade and owned slaves himself. Even more prominently in Bristol the statue to Edward Colston, a slave trader, has been torn down. In New Zealand we’re beginning to see opinions towards Governor Grey and the Land Wars change. I feel like all of this is part of re-examining our history and I’m interested to see how public opinions may change even further in the future.