Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard.

One of my favourite artists is Jacques-Louis David. His paintings are realistic and historical, and the majority of his drawings shows Napoleone I, whom I consider to be one of the most interesting outstanding personalities.

Jacques-Louis David (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward a classical austerity and severity, heightened feeling chiming with the moral climate of the final years of the ancien régime.

David had been an admirer of Napoleon from their first meeting, struck by the General Bonaparte's classical features. As the First Consul Napoleon commissioned David to commemorate his daring crossing of the Alps. The crossing of the St. Bernard Pass had allowed the French to surprise the Austrian army and win victory at the Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800. Although Napoleon had crossed the Alps on a mule, he requested that he be portrayed "calm upon a fiery steed". David complied with "Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard". After the proclamation of the Empire in 1804, David became the official court painter of the regime.