giddy up

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

effervescent

“Champagne! In victory one deserves it, in defeat one needs it.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte

as opposed to theoretically

Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787

"The great truths we learn experientially."
- Socrates

dreamer of dreams

"He would deal with three or four alternatives at the same time and endeavour to conjure up every possible eventuality—preferably the worst. This foresight, the fruit of meditation, generally enabled him to be ready for any setback, nothing ever took him by surprise … perhaps the most astonishing characteristic of his intellect was the combination of idealism and realism which enabled him to face the most exalted visions at the same time as the most insignificant realities. And, indeed, he was in a sense a visionary, a dreamer of dreams."
- This description of Napoleon is by Louis Madelin, his contemporary and biographer.

lucky

When asked what kind of Generals he liked, Napoleon's response was "fortuné" meaning "lucky."

"let me see what I wrote so I know what I think."*

"All that we are not stares back at what we are." And, "Art is born of humiliation."
- W.H. Auden [1907-1973]

A reference to Jacques Louis David here.

darkest work

Jacques Louis David, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789

Brutus had his sons executed for plotting to bring back the monarchy conspiring against Roman freedom.

An earlier reference to David here.

not really a romantic

Jacques-Louis David [1748-1825], Death of Marat, 1793

Jean-Paul Marat's [1743-1793] incendiary journalism partly incited the September Massacres during the French Revolution, where 1200 citizens were slaughtered, darkening the optimism of 18th century Romantics. A work for the faces in the crowd.

An earlier reference to David here.

loner

Jacques-Louis David [1748-1825], The Oath of the Horatii

The Roman Republic is at war, and the dispute is to be settled by mortal combat between three Roman brothers (the Horatii) and three enemy brothers (the Curatii). David shows the dramatic moment when the Horatii swear before their father their allegiance to the State, and a readiness to die on its behalf. But the story presents a difficult moral dilemma, for one of the Horatii brothers is married to one of the sisters of the Curatii, and a Horatii sister is betrothed to one of the Curatii brothers. They will choose self-sacrifice and loyalty to the Republic over family ties and personal emotion. The picture was commissioned by Louis XVI, who was guillotined in 1792.

More context.

Due to a facial disfigurement, David was a loner and near recluse who wrapped himself in his art at a young age.

"window dresser of tyranny."