Who painted the famous picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps?

Jacques-Louis David painted the famous picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps.

The work is usually called Napoleon Crossing the Alps, or Bonaparte Crossing the Alps. David created five oil-on-canvas versions between 1801 and 1805, showing Napoleon dramatically mounted on a rearing horse at the Great St Bernard Pass. The image was designed as heroic political propaganda after Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Marengo.

The painting is powerful precisely because it is not a literal record of the journey. Napoleon actually crossed the Alps in 1800 on a mule and wore practical military clothing, whereas David presents him in a flowing cloak, commanding pose, and theatrical landscape. The foreground inscriptions associate Napoleon with Hannibal and Charlemagne, earlier leaders linked with Alpine crossings.

A common mix-up is confusing David’s painting with Paul Delaroche’s later Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which presents a more realistic-looking Napoleon riding a mule. David was also responsible for other major Napoleonic images, including The Coronation of Napoleon, but the iconic rearing-horse portrait is his.