The Crossing of the Andes

What it is

This is a painting called The Crossing of the Andes by Augusto Ballerini, dated 1898. It shows a mountain pass with snow-capped peaks. On the right, a mounted officer in a dark blue coat on a white horse leads a column of cavalry, and one rider carries a flag. On the left, a long column of troops and horses winds across a valley floor. The facts available for this file do not name the institution that holds the painting.

Why it matters

The crossing of the Andes in 1817 was the military march that brought the army from Argentina into Chile, and O'Higgins took part in it. Ballerini painted the scene in 1898, so it shows how later artists imagined and remembered the event rather than how it looked at the time. Students can use it to see how nations build their founding stories.

Look closer

• Who is the officer on the white horse, and why is he placed at the center of the scene?
• What does the painter show about the landscape, and what might the picture leave out, such as the hardship of the march?
• Why might a painter in 1898 have chosen this event to show?