The Passage of Mount Saint Bernard
Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault (printed by Charles Étienne Pierre Motte (French, 1785-1836))
1822
- Medium
- Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper
- Classification
- 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.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- John H. Wrenn Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
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.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
