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Baron Antoine-Jean Gros
(French, 1771 — 1835)
Napoleon Bonaparte on the Bridge at Arcole (1796/1797)
Inventory Number: 5669
Oil on canvas.
41.5 x 53.5 inches (105 x 135.5 cm)
In 1793, Gros went to Italy where he met the then General Napoleon Bonaparte and was appointed his official battle painter. On 17 November 1796, at a battle near Arcole, Bonaparte threw himself first into the fray to storm a bridge occupied by the Austrian army, thus moving forward his soldiers who had fallen back. Napoleon's act led to a French victory.
This painting of this historic event was based on the artist's personal impressions — he accompanied Bonaparte on the Italian campaign and was an eyewitness of all that happened. Gros embodied in the image of Napoleon the classical ideal of a strong, willful individual. The figure strains forward, face cold and calm, with a tense gaze emphasizing the hero's decisiveness and bravery. At the same time, in combining a battle scene with a portrait of a hero of the people, Gros's painting is suffused with a mood which foreshadows the Romantic era, reflected in the dynamic colour and light and shade contrasts, the intersection of diagonal lines and movements.
Size can be commissioned smaller or larger.
Collection of the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.