Jacques-Louis David was born on August 30, 1748, and died on December 29, 1825. He was born in Paris and loved art from an early age, and became a pioneering artist of Neoclassicism.
We come face to face with the man himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. He is the central figure in the composition, straddled upon his white horse, which is classified as an Arabian stallion.
The color scheme in Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David consists mostly of a subdued color palette, which creates a color harmony for the overall composition; there are no stark colors standing out.
The composition appears well-defined and clear, which was one of his artistic traits, as well as what was prevalent in the Neoclassical style. In the painting, his brushwork does not really show, and the canvas is left with a smooth painted surface.
There appears to be no visible outlines in Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David, which is part and parcel of David’s artistic approach to depicting clean delineations. There are strong implied directional lines.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David consists of naturalistic, or organic, shapes and forms, in other words, it follows nature, from the human to animal figures to the more static environment around them like the rocks and mountains.
Jacques-Louis David placed Napoleon and his stallion as the central subjects, which take up most of the compositional space in the foreground. A sense of spatial depth is created by making the frontal subjects clearer.