Sketch after David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps; a Recumbent Nude Male; a Standing Female (from Sketchbook) 1810 - 1820

This pen and ink sketch by Thomas Sully includes studies after Jacques Louis David’s iconic painting, *Napoleon Crossing the Alps*. Sully, working in the late 18th and early to mid-19th century, lived in a world still processing the aftershocks of both the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. David’s original painting depicts Napoleon as a heroic figure, but here Sully also includes a recumbent nude male, and a standing female. The naked man might be seen as a figure of defeat, but perhaps we can also see the image of the nude as an embrace of classical ideals of beauty and the aestheticization of the male form. The image of the standing woman, cloaked and in contrapposto, might represent classical virtue, and thus we have a drama in which Napoleon is juxtaposed with both male defeat and female virtue. Sully’s sketch is an intimate engagement with history, power, and the body, offering a glimpse into the artist's dialogue with the art of his time, as he grapples with themes of heroism, vulnerability, and idealization.