Portrait of Napoleon

The portrait of Napoleon was created after the pig leader had consolidated his personal cult. Napoleon approved a poem composed by Minimus and caused it to be inscribed on the wall of the big barn, at the opposite end from the Seven Commandments. Above the poem, Squealer executed a portrait of Napoleon in profile, using white paint. The portrait thus occupied a prominent position in the farm's central gathering space, directly facing the original revolutionary law. Its placement and medium—the same white paint used for the Commandments—suggested an equivalence between the leader's image and the farm's founding principles, yet the portrait was a new addition, not present in the early days of the Rebellion. By the time it appeared, Napoleon was never spoken of simply as 'Napoleon' but as 'our Leader, Comrade Napoleon,' and the pigs had invented for him titles such as Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, and Ducklings' Friend. The portrait reinforced this personality cult, making the leader's face a permanent fixture in the animals' daily lives.

Simultaneously, the portrait participated in the broader process by which the pigs took on the trappings of human authority. Later, the pigs carried whips, wore Mr. Jones's clothes, and installed a wireless set and a telephone. Napoleon himself was seen strolling with a pipe in his mouth and appearing in a black coat, ratcatcher breeches, and leather leggings. The portrait, painted in white on a tarred wall, was a relatively crude artifact, but it anticipated the pigs' eventual assimilation into human society. Its presence opposite the Seven Commandments also foreshadowed the final transformation of the Commandments themselves: the wall that once held seven rules would later display only a single altered commandment, and the portrait, though never mentioned again, belonged to the same apparatus of ideological control. The sheep's new slogan 'Four legs good, two legs better' and the final renaming of the farm back to Manor Farm completed the cycle, and the portrait—a static image of the dictator—stood as a silent witness to the revolution's betrayal.