Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (also called Napoleon Crossing the Alps, despite the existence of another, more well-known painting with that name) is an 1848-1850 oil-on-canvas portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, by French artist Paul Delaroche. The painting depicts Bonaparte leading his army through the Alps on a mule,[I] a journey Napoleon and his army of soldiers made in the spring of 1800, in an attempt to surprise the Austrian army in Italy.