Bonaparte Crossing the St. Bernard Pass ~ Jacques-Louis David

Year: 1800 Oil on canvas 260x221 cm
Location : Musée National de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France
This has been my favorite since the first time I saw its puzzle. It echoes the spirit of patriotism, and indeed, the painter David in 1789 adopted a realistic rather than neoclassical style in order to record contemporary scenes of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Born into a prosperous middle-class family in Paris on August 30, 1748, studied at the Académie Royale and won the Prix de Rome in 1774, he was strongly influenced by classical art. He was a painter who introduced the neoclassical style in France. His famous Oath of the Horatii (1784-1785, Louvre, Paris) which became the principal model for noble and heroic historical painting of the next two decades, was consciously intended as a proclamation of the new neoclassical style in which dramatic lighting, ideal forms, and gestures clarity are emphasized. His paintings often presents a lofty moralistic (and by implication patriotic) theme, and his patriotic and heroic themes paved the way for the romantics. Throughout his career, he was also a prolific portraitist whose career represented the transition from the Rococo of the 18th century to the realism of the 19th. From 1799 to 1815 he was Napoleon's official painter, chronicling the reign of Napoleon I in huge works such as Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine (1805-1807, Louvre). Following Napoleon's downfall, David was exiled to Brussel, where he stayed until his death on December 29, 1825. Larger image.