The contemporary version of Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps became extremely popular mostly because of its reference to an existing painting, made by the influential French neo-classical painter, Jacques-Louis David in 1801. Kehinde Wiley‘s interpretation of Napoleon is done in his recognizable manner – Wiley overlaps the repetitive ornamental elements from the background with the figures of young dark-skinned men, dressed in their everyday clothes. Wiley usually approaches people on the street and asks them to model for him, and so it happened this time as well. The referential painting was chosen by the model. [https://www.widewalls.ch/contemporary-portrait-paintings/kehinde-wiley-napoleon/]