Bonaparte crossing the Alps on the Great St. Bernhard

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Bonaparte franchissant le Grand-Saint-Bernard (Bonaparte crossing the Alps on the Great Saint Bernard) (Jacques-Louis David)
Bonaparte franchissant le Grand-Saint-Bernard
(Bonaparte crossing the Alps on the Great Saint Bernard)
Jacques-Louis David , 1800
Oil on canvas
259-272 x 221-237 cm

The painting Bonaparte crossing the Alps on the Great Saint Bernard by the French history painter Jacques-Louis David from 1800, which he created in five versions until 1802, is one of the most famous Napoléon paintings. In an idealized form, it depicts Napoléon's transition across the Alps at the Great St. Bernhard Pass a few weeks before his victory over Austrian troops at Marengo during the Second Coalition War (1799–1802).

description

The painting shows Napoléon Bonaparte sitting on the back of a horse straightening up . The front of the rider and horse points to the left. Napoléon wears turned-up boots halfway up and a classy uniform, the collar, skirt and right cuff are decorated with fine embroidery. Only on the left hand (the hand on the reins , he wears a glove). On his head Napoléon wears a bicorn hat with a golden rim and a white, blue and red cockade . His upper body is wrapped in an orange cloak. A sword hangs on his left side. Napoléon's left fist holds the unfastened reins of the white horse, whose eyes, nostrils and mouth are wildly torn. Napoléon sits quietly in the saddle and looks in the direction of the beholder with a firm, determined look. His cloak, hair, mane and tail of the horse are blowing to the left, that is, in the direction of march. With his right hand he shows the direction, upwards.

In the background his soldiers pull cannons up a narrow mountain pass (in the picture to the top left). They are followed by the infantry , of which only the bayonets can be seen. Behind it, on the right side of the picture, you can see the tricolor , which is also blowing in the direction of the march. Beyond it on the left, higher up, a mountain range rises. The sky in the upper part of the picture is cloudy, bluish spots behind Napoléon's head and above the mountain peak as well as light rocks below the steep wall behind the rear of the horse and near the summit could represent a clearing of the sky.

In the foreground, on the left, three names are carved into the rock in capital letters: "ANNIBAL" ( Hannibal ), "KAROLUS MAGNUS" ( Charlemagne ) and above that "BONAPARTE". The lower two names are partially cut off or difficult to read in most of the illustrations, both in the books and on the Internet. The second inscription reads in full "KAROLUS MAGNUS IMP".

The picture is signed on the horse's bridle and dated with the date of the French revolutionary calendar.

Formal information

The painting is listed in the Thieme-Becker dictionary of artists under the French title Bonaparte franchissant les Alpes au Grand-Saint-Bernard . There are also other titles that differ from these or are abbreviated. a .:

  • Bonaparte franchissant les Alpes au St. Bernard
  • Bonaparte franchissant le Grand-Saint-Bernard
  • Bonaparte franchissant le col du Grand Saint-Bernard

The correct translation of the title from the artist's lexicon is Bonaparte when crossing the Alps on the Great Saint Bernard Pass . The painting will u. a. listed under the following German titles:

  • Bonaparte crosses the Alps on St. Bernhard
  • Bonaparte on the Great St. Bernhard
  • Bonaparte crossing the Alps

There are five versions of the painting, which were created between 1800 and 1802. David had made the individual copies with the help of other painters. The range of differences extends from minor details to major differences in color tones (see Fig. 1–4). The various versions, each executed in oil on canvas, differ in the color of the background, in the design of the sky, in the color of Napoléon's cloak and in the color of the horse. The background varies between reddish, yellowish, blue-grayish and olive-grayish color. One version clearly shows a breaking cloud cover and rays of sunshine. Most of the others have thick clouds in the sky. Napoléon's cloak varies between red and orange. On most versions the horse has a white or beige coat, on one version it is chestnut brown. In addition, the versions have been made in different sizes. The height of the picture varies between 259 and 272 cm, the width between 221 and 237 cm. The probably first version in Malmaison Castle has the dimensions 259 × 221 cm.

Origin, genre and whereabouts of the painting

It is not certain who commissioned the painting. Étienne-Jean Delécluze , a student of David, named Napoléon himself as the client. He is said to have requested a painting to commemorate the victory of Marengo. Antoine Schnapper thinks it is more likely that the Spanish King Charles IV suggested the painting. Alexander Sturgis and Hollis Clayson explicitly name the king as their client. In view of the political situation, one could assume that the picture was made for Charles IV, but that someone else had commissioned it. Spain entered the First Coalition War on France's side in 1796 , but remained neutral in the Second Coalition War. The painting could have been a warning to the Spanish king. If Napoléon could cross the Alps with an army, so too could the Pyrenees. Christopher Prendergast's statement that the painting was sent to the Spanish king, if only the second version, would fit this theory.

David wanted to paint Napoléon with the sword in his hand, but he refused because, as he himself said, you would not win battles with the sword. Rather, he wished to be painted in a calm pose on a hot-blooded horse. David had the valet bring Napoléon's uniform, coat, hat, boots and sword that Napoléon had worn in Marengo to his studio and used them to put on a doll that he used as a model.

David's painting belongs to the genre of ruler portraits on horseback, which go back to the ancient imperial equestrian statues of Rome. This genre was established by Titian through his picture of Emperor Karl V after the battle of Mühlberg in 1548. In his painting, however, David did not only refer to Titian. As a model for Napoléon's horse, he took Etienne-Maurice Falconet's equestrian statue of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great .

David's painting remained in Spain until 1808/09 when it was regained by Joseph Bonaparte during his brief reign on the Spanish throne. It is now in the Musée du Château de Malmaison. The version with a chestnut horse, captured by Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher during the Wars of Liberation from Saint-Cloud Palace, is the second version made for Napoleon and can be found today in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin . The third version, originally in the Hôtel des Invalides , is now in Versailles, along with another . The fourth version, originally in the Palace of the Republic in Milan , is now on loan from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna .

Illumination of the historical facts

After the First Coalition War (1792–1797), the northern Italian areas came under the control of France. During the Second Coalition War (1799-1802), the Austrians invaded Lombardy, which was part of France. Napoléon, first consul since the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire VIII (November 9, 1799), immediately set off on his second Italian campaign. In order to stab in the rear of the enemy, to steal his supplies and to cut him off from supplies, Napoléon dared to cross the Alps. After crossing the Great St. Bernhard Pass from May 17-20, 1800, his army invaded northern Italy and defeated the Austrian troops at Marengo on June 14th . At the same time, Jean-Victor-Marie Moreau attacked the Austrians in southern Germany and threw them back over the Inn. A truce was signed on July 15th.

In fact, Napoléon did not cross the Alps on a horse, as shown in the painting, but on a mule , which was driven by a mountain guide, in the rear of his army. His coat and hat were covered with oilskin and he did not take the same route as Hannibal. The cannons were not transported in the way the painting shows. The guns were dismantled, the carriages mounted on mules and the pipes packed in hollowed-out tree trunks were pulled up the mountain by 100 men each and not pulled or pushed up the mountain by a few soldiers in one go.

At the time shown in the painting, Napoléon was only First Consul and not, as is conceivable due to the connection to Charlemagne and the representation similar to an equestrian statue of a Caesar , Emperor of the French. He did not become this until 1804. Due to the fact that Napoléon only became first consul just under six months before the Battle of Marengo, one can assume that he did not move to Northern Italy for France's sake, as the tricolor implies could. Rather, it was probably his job to secure his power. The loss of Lombardy and Piedmont would have meant a loss of prestige and endangered his rank as First Consul.

In the end, Napoléon's crossing of the Alps was nothing unusual or unique. In the two years before Napoléon's transition, French armies had passed the Alps to intercept Austrian and Russian troops in Switzerland. In addition, four other French units had crossed the Alps during the Northern Italy campaign.

Napoléon's part in the victory over Austria is also not what one might think when looking at the painting . Five other generals ( Jean Lannes , André Masséna , Louis Gabriel Suchet , Louis-Charles-Antoine Desaix and François-Etienne Kellermann ) operated in the war zone. Desaix and Kellermann made a decisive contribution to the victory in Marengo. In addition, Napoleon had asked Moreau to be reinforced by Bon-Adrien-Jeannot de Moncey with 25,000 men. This came to the aid of Napoléon with 15,000 men - after a march over the Alps.

That said, Napoléon's victory wasn't the only one that led to the armistice. Moreover, the enforced peace did not last long, so the victories were worthless. As already mentioned, other versions of the painting were made in 1801 and 1802. It is likely that these versions were commissioned and distributed in order to maintain Napoléon's reputation as the only successful general. The reality was different. The war had flared up again in November 1800. But now it was Moreau who succeeded on December 3rd of the same year in defeating the Austrian troops decisively at Hohenlinden and forcing them to come to a new armistice on December 25th.

Quote

The Black Brunswicker by John Everett Millais from 1860.

In 1860 the British painter John Everett Millais used David's painting in his work The Black Brunswicker ("The Black Brunswicker") .

literature

  • James R. Arnold: Marengo and Hohenlinden. Napoleon's rise to power. Arnold, Lexington VA 1999, ISBN 0-9670985-0-5 .
  • Georges Lefebvre : Napoleon. Edited by Peter Schöttler . With an afterword by Daniel Schönpflug. 2nd Edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-94341-2 .
  • Christopher Prendergast: Napoleon and history painting. Antoine-Jean Gros's La bataille D'Eylau. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. a. 1997, ISBN 0-19-817402-0 .
  • General artist lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples. Volume 25: Dayan - Delvoye. KG Saur, Munich a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-598-22765-5 .
  • Antoine Schnapper: J.-L. David and his time. Popp, Würzburg 1981, ISBN 3-88155-089-5 .
  • Rainer Schoch : The image of the ruler in painting in the 19th century (= studies on the art of the 19th century. Vol. 23). Prestel, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7913-0052-0 (also: Karlsruhe, University, dissertation, 1972).
  • Alexander Sturgis, Hollis Clayson (ed.): Fascination painting. Discover and understand 550 masterpieces. Belser, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-7630-2389-5 .

Web links

Commons : Bonaparte crossing the Alps on the Great St. Bernhard  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

The page was accessed on September 22, 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schoch, p. 55; confirmed by an email from the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG) from. The foundation owns a version of the painting.
  2. ↑ Assumed when looking at the pictures, confirmed by an e-mail from the SPSG.
  3. ↑ Saur, p. 437 as well as websites of the universities of Munich and Siegen
  4. ↑ Schoch, p. 55.
  5. ↑ Prendergast, p. 111 and Schnapper, p. 205f and the website of the University of Grenoble.
  6. ^ Website of the Association of French Museums and National Archives.
  7. ↑ Schoch, Fig. 34 in the annex from p. 247 and p. 355 as well as the website of the University of Siegen.
  8. ↑ Schnapper, p. 206.
  9. ↑ Sturgis; Clayson, pp. 155 and 263.
  10. ↑ Museée de l'armée (video and commentary) , Napoléon et l'Europe (French, accessed on January 9, 2014
  11. ↑ See Prendergast, p. 110; Schnapper, p. 205; Schoch, p. 212, note 234 and Sturgis; Clayson, p. 155.
  12. ↑ See Prendergast, p. 111; Schnapper, pp. 205f; Schoch, p. 212, p. 355; Sturgis; Clayson, p. 155 and the websites of the Universities of Grenoble, Munich and Siegen, the Association of French Museums and National Archives.
  13. ↑ a b Schoch, p. 212.
  14. ↑ See Schnapper, p. 205 and Sturgis; Clayson, p. 155.
  15. ↑ Prendergast, p. 110.
  16. ↑ Schoch, p. 55; Deviating from this, Schnapper, p. 206: David himself had decided on the type of representation.
  17. ↑ Schnapper, p. 206 and Schoch, p. 55.
  18. ↑ Schoch, p. 55 and Sturgis; Clayson, p. 155.
  19. ↑ Schnapper, pp. 205f; Deviating from this, Prendergast, p. 110: The first version came immediately to Malmaison, the second to Spain. After Museée de l'armée (video and commentary) , Napoléon et l'Europe , the first version commissioned by the King of Spain came to Spain. The second version from Versailles was shown in the exhibition.
  20. ^ Trophies, clear out the Louvre . The mirror . November 28, 1983. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  21. ↑ Versailles 1st version
  22. ↑ Kunsthistorisches Museum
  23. ↑ Lefèbvre, p. 89ff and website of the University of Siegen.
  24. ^ Adam Zamoyski: Napoleon: One life . CH Beck, 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72497-8 , pp. 243 .
  25. ↑ Schoch, p. 55; Schnapper, p. 206 and Sturgis; Clayson, p. 155 and the website of the University of Siegen.
  26. ↑ Lefèbvre, p. 90 and Schoch, p. 54f.
  27. ↑ Lefèbvre, p. 89 and website of the Association of French Museums and National Archives.
  28. ^ Arnold, p. 102f.
  29. ^ Lefèbvre, p. 89f and Arnold, p. 143-183 (detailed description of the battle of Marengo in English).
  30. ↑ Lefèbvre, p. 89.
  31. ↑ Lefèbvre, p. 93.

Web links