The Passage of Mount Saint Bernard
Medium
Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 35.9 × 41.7 cm (14 3/16 × 16 7/16 in.); Sheet: 41.8 × 53.2 cm (16 1/2 × 21 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
40863
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this lithograph, Théodore Géricault depicted Napoleon Bonaparte as a young general leading French troops through the Alps via the treacherous Great Saint Bernard Pass. Napoleon had to bring his men, supplies, and weapons (all detailed here) through the mountains in order to cross into Northern Italy and fight the enemy Austrian army. The resulting French victory helped establish Napoleon as a popular military hero, which eventually enabled his ascent to emperor in 1804.
About the Artist
Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault · 1791–1824
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) was born into a prosperous bourgeois family in Rouen, France, the son of a lawyer who managed the family tobacco business. After moving to Paris around 1797, his artistic talent emerged early, nurtured in a circle that included his maternal uncle Jean-Baptiste Caruel and art dealer Jean-Louis Laneuville. Géricault began formal training in 1808 under ...