ANTOINE JEAN GROS
Napoleon at Arcola (detail) 1796
oil on canvas 28 3/4 x 23 1/4 in.
Paris, Louvre

Over the dark and stormy seas of the times and rebellions, Across the waters muddy and dangerous, In the life of the humanity seeking in vain and chaotically. There is the order that is high in this portrait: Napoleon at Arcola from 1796 - the masculine elements of the life and the nature, becoming ready to find, to see, to conquer, to advance victoriously with the honour. Through the elements of the nature, the humanity, the stars and the worlds; there come the highest energies of the manhood in the perfect order. The military genius of young and brilliant Napoleon: there is that very something from the world and the kingdom of the greatest causes, holy causes It is to live victoriously, it is to work and to live for the sake of the deep causes, for the sake of the lost beauty of this once great planetary system.

Index Previous painting

updated 1.6.2003
[email protected]