I got into Napoleon because of the wonderful

Originally uploaded by beauregardkleinhund.

art that he commissioned.

David

Ingres

Gerard

and Isabey

are painters that made Napoleon and his times accessible.

This painting is the work of Jacques Louis David, the official court painter of Napoleon. This painting was done before (or during?) the French Revolution. It's at the Metropolitan in New York. When I'm there I can't take my eyes off it.

There is a special Nova running on PBS about Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It contains a section about Lavoisier so that's really interesting for me. This man was killed in the Revolution. Ironically David was behind a lot of the killing. After that, David championed Napoleon. I guess that's what it took to survive back then.