A heavy stone wall in the Parc de la Villette holds a stencil of a rider swaddled in a red cloak, his face obscured by a checkered keffiyeh. This image mocks Jacques-Louis David’s famous portrait of Napoleon on horseback. While the original painting glorified a leader crossing the Alps to seize power, this version shows a figure lost in fabric, turning a symbol of imperial triumph into a question about modern identity. The stencil appeared here in two thousand eighteen, part of an unannounced series.
Banksy “Napoleon Crossing the Alps”
historic