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This is Napoleon Bonaparte.

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He's cool, he's confident, 
he's hot, he's...

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What?

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This piece is called 
"Napoleon Crossing the Alps"

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by Jacques-Louis David.

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It's the most famous portrait
of the brutal French military leader

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turned Emperor

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but in reality this painting
is a giant lie

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and just another reason, the artist
is considered a sellout.

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It's so pretty though, 
it can't be that bad, right?

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Settle in and grab some chicken Marengo.

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Things are about to get wild.

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Napoleon emerges front and center
mounted on a wild stallion.

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He's cool as a cucumber, 
bathed in an Angelic light

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that seems to come from the heavens.

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His bright red cloak 
bubbles up around him

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as a brisk wind thrusts
his brown hair across his face,

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framing his deep set eyes.

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His left hand grips the rains,

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his right hand points toward 
the steep snowy mountaintops,

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as if he's commanded them
into their present form.

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The weather is terrible.

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His horse is practically 
foaming at the mouth.

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Soldiers are scaling
the treacherous cliffs in the distance

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and Napoleon is just like

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"Hold my beer!"

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Maybe you know Napoleon
as a short hot headed man

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with an ego the size of Europe,

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but maybe you didn't know
he was so hot.

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"Oh my!"

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And that's because he wasn't.

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But, to be fair, 
he also wasn't that short either.

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He was 5'7" which was around
average height for his time,

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a little short for a general though.

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Napoleon thought that posing
for this portrait wasn't worth his time

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even telling Jacques-Louis-David

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"Nobody knows if the portraits
of great men resemble them.

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"It's enough 
that their genius lives there."

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So, David made do with what he had.

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The artist asked his son
to pose for the portrait on a ladder

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wearing Napoleon's uniform

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which is probably why he looks
so young and so full of shark

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Napoleon wasn't just
a genius military commander,

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he was also a master propagandist

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and this painting is no exception.

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Here's the key.

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Napoleon didn't ride up the Alps
on a horse,

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he rode up on a mule.

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He also didn't even lead his troops
over the Alps at all,

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he followed them a couple
of days later

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and the weather was apparently nice,
not treacherous as the painting suggests.

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This painting by Paul Delaroche

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created around half a century
after David's piece

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is a much more accurate depiction

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of what Napoleon's voyage
actually looked like.

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So, how did we get here?

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Let's take a trip back to the time
and place of Napoleon's birth

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The island of Corsica in the year 1769...

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(Cough) Oh, sorry.

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...it's actually over here.

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The island of Corsica
is off the coast of France and Italy.

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Though Napoleon was still born
a French citizen,

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since the island had been seized by France

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just a year before he was born,

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when he was sent
to boarding school in France.

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at the age f nine,

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all the kids made fun of his accent
and thought he was weird.

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But the bullying didn't stop him

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and Napoleon graduated
went to military school

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and then became an artillery officer.

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So, what was France even like
during this time?

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Imagine a world where the king,
the queen and the super rich

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pay nothing in taxes

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and throw lavish parties every night

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while the poor are literally
starving to death

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and working all the time.

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Welcome to France in the 18th century.

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What's more the government
had accumulated a lot of debt

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and decided that in order to pay for it

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they would tax the poor even more.

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I think it goes without saying
that the poor were peeved, really peeved

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and they even started to question
whether they needed a king at all.

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In the 18th century you couldn't come
into a position of power

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unless you were born into it.

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This harsh reality started
to sink in for Napoleon

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as he attempted
to climb the ranks in the military.

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He realized that nobody gave a frantic
feline about his talent and hard work,

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Meritocracy who? We don't know her.

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The only chance he had
of climbing the ranks

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was a shakeup to the entire system,

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a revolution perhaps.

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And as fate would have it,

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that's exactly what he got

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In May 1789 the French Revolution began.

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Napolean fought for the Revolution

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and through the combination
of a volatile political climate,

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some impressive military leadership

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and opportunistic political maneuvering,

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he climbed all the way to the top

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and in 1799 he was granted
the title of First Consul,

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making him the most powerful man
in France.

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But as Napoleon got busy 
reforming the government,

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the French army was struggling

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trying to fight the austrians in Italy.

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This was simply unacceptable
for Napoleon, who said:

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"A newly born government
must dazzle and astonish.

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"When it ceases to do that, it fails."

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So, Napoleon left France
to dazzle and astonish,

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as a military commander once more.

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Napoleon was a successful military leader
for a few reasons.

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For one, his men respected him

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because he not only believed in them,

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he fought alongside them

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but also because he was clever
and innovative in his tactics

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and capitalized
on the element of surprise.

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There are two ways 
to get into Italy from France

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the Piemonte region, which is easy

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and where any sane commander
would cross with their troops

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or the northern route through Switzerland,
through the Alps,

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Crossing through the Alps with an army
was a very risky thing to do.

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For one thing, the mountains
are steep and treacherous

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and a single snowstorm or landslide 
can be devastating .

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Maybe you can guess 
the route that Napoleon took.

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Only two commanders in history

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had successfully led their forces
across the Alps

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and Napoleon wanted
to make sure everyone knew that.

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So, he told David to include the names
of the other two great commanders,

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Charlemagne and Hannibal

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which appear to be carved into the rocks,

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to the bottom left of the painting.

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And you'll notice the position 
slightly above both of them

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is Napoleon's nam.

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This painting depicts this event,
formerly known as the Battle of Marengo,

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where the French took the Austrians
by surprise and won.

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In celebration of his recent victory 
and becoming First Consul,

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an exchange of gifts took place
between Charles IV of Spain and Napoleon

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to reestablish diplomatic relations

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and this portrait was actually
commissioned by King Charles

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and gifted to Napoleon.

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Maybe you noticed that this piece
is slightly different

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from the painting we've been looking 
at the whole video.

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Napoleon requested David to make him
three more versions of this portrait

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and this is technically the third version

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but I like it better than the original.

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What do you think?

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It turns out that David
was kind of obsessed with Napoleon,

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so, he made a fifth version
to keep in his studio.

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Jacques-Louis-David
was a super talented artist.

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I mean, look at this.

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Are you serious?

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But how could anyone look at art like this
and called David a sellout?

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David hated the French monarchy

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and was a staunt supporter
of the Revolution.

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He was among the hundreds of men

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who voted to send King Louis XVI 
to the guillotine.

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He was a member
of the extremist Jacobian group

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and created political propaganda
paintings on their behalf.

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David was even arrested 
at one point

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for his alignment with the group
during the Revolution.

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What's confusing is that the artist
remained loyal to Napoleon

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throughout his rise

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and after he became emperor,
David was made first court painter

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and the propaganda pieces
just kept coming,

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like this painting 
of Napoleon's coronation

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and this painting titled

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"The Emperor Napoleon
in his Study at the Tuileries".

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The candles have almost burned out,

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the clock reads 4:13 in the morning,

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Emperor Napoleon stayed up all night

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working on the Napoleonic Code.

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That's what he wants us to think anyway.

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David held his allegiance to Napoleon
until the bitter end

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and when the former Emperor 
was exiled from France,

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David was exiled as well.

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Many have raised doubts
about David's motives,

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questioning how he could oppose
the monarchy so strongly

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only to later endorse
someone like Napoleon

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who forcefully rose to power

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and made himself a tyrannical dictator.

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Though his revolutionary paintings
were so raw and intense

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which makes it difficult to believe

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that he didn't genuinely believe in it.

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Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the most
controversial figures that ever lived.

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and rightfully so, he reinstated slavery

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after it was already abolished,

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he stripped away the few rights
women had been able to obtain

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during the Revolution.

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He died with a lot of blood
on his hands

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in his quest to conquer Europe
and take over the world

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but he also introduced legal reforms

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such as the presumption of innocence
until proven guilty,

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freedom of religion 
and educational advancements,

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including the integration of science
into curricula,

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all of which remain cornerstones
of modern society.

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For better or for worse we see the signs

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of Napoleon's presence 
in the world even today.

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Napoleon may not have set 
for this portrait

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but David's painting portrayed him 
exactly as he wanted to be seen,

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the ideal savior for a nation

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that was desperate and in the
trenches,

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in Napoleon's own words:

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"I found the crown of France 
lying in the gutter

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"and I picked it up with my sword

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"but it was the people 
who placed it on my head."

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Napoleon is immortalized
in David's painting

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as a man who urges us to follow him,

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a man who remains calm on a fiery steed,

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a man who leads his soldiers
even in the worst of conditions,

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a man with the power 
to command the mountains

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and perhaps more importantly
the power to command those boots too.