There are five copies in existence of this portrait, regarded as more or less all by the same hand, and curiously the first was acquired by the king of Spain Charles IV, then one of the rare allies of France (now in the Musée de Malmaison). Bonaparte commissioned other copies, this one first, for the Hôtel des Invalides. This extremely celebrated image has appealed to the popular imagination for over two centuries.
Photo © EPV/ Jean-Marc Manaï
Full title : Bonaparte Crossing the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass, 20 May 1800