Detail of Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps by Kehinde Wiley in the Brooklyn Museum, August 2007

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977)
Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps, 2005

Oil on canvas
Collection of Andrew B. Cohen

"Painting is about the world that we live in. Black men live in the world. My choice is to include them. This is my way of saying yes to us." - Kehinde Wiley

Historically, the role of portraiture has been not only to create a likeness but also to communicate ideas about the subject's status, wealth, and power. During the eighteenth century, for example, major patrons from the church and the aristocracy commissioned portraits in part to signify their importance in society. This portrait imitates the posture of the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte in Jacques Louis-David's painting "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at Grand-Saint-Bernard." Wiley transforms the traditional equestrian portrait by substituting an anonymous young Black man dressed in contemporary clothing for the figure of Napoleon. The artist thereby confronts and critiques historical traditions that do not acknowledge Black cultural experience. Wiley presents a new brand of portraiture that redefines and affirms Black identity and simultaneously questions the history of Western painting.

Text from the Brooklyn Museum label.