Horace Vernet

{{Infobox artist

| name = Horace Vernet

| image = Emile Jean Horace Vernet 002.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| caption = Self-Portrait with Pipe, 1835

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1789|6|30|df=y}}

| birth_place = Paris, France

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1863|1|17|1789|6|30|df=y}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| resting_place =

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| known_for = {{flatlist|

Painter
draughtsman
lithographer

}}

| notable_works =

| style =

| movement = Orientalist

| spouse =

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| awards =

| elected =

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| website =

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| birth_name = Émile Jean-Horace Vernet

}}

Émile Jean-Horace Vernet ({{IPA|fr|emil ʒɑ̃ ɔʁas vɛʁnɛ}}; 30 June 1789{{snd}}17 January 1863) more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects.

Biography

File:Horace Vernet - Italian Brigands Surprised by Papal Troops - Walters 3754.jpg, 1831]]

=Early career=

Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famous painter, who was himself a son of Claude Joseph Vernet. He was born in the Paris Louvre, while his parents were staying there during the French Revolution. Vernet quickly developed a disdain for the high-minded seriousness of academic French art work which was distinguished by art influenced by Classicism, and decided to paint subjects taken mostly from contemporary life. During his early career, when Napoleon Bonaparte was in power, he began depicting the French soldier in a more familiar, vernacular manner rather than in an idealized, Davidian fashion; he was just twenty when he exhibited the Taking of an Entrenched Camp{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Vernet|display=Vernet s.v. Émile Jean Horace Vernet|volume=27|pages=1030–1031}} Some other of his paintings that represent French soldiers in a more direct, less idealizing style, include Dog of the Regiment, Trumpeter's Horse, and Death of Poniatowski.

=Restoration France=

Image:Horace Vernet Adrien Nadar 1858.jpg

Image:Horace Vernet-Barricade rue Soufflot.jpg on Rue Soufflot, Paris, June 25, 1848{{cite web |url=http://home.wlu.edu/~patchw/His_102/images/1848_revolutions2_files/frame.htm |title=Washington and Lee University |publisher=Home.wlu.edu |access-date=2012-06-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012031500/http://home.wlu.edu/~patchw/His_102/images/1848_revolutions2_files/frame.htm |archive-date=2013-10-12 }}]]

He gained recognition during the Bourbon Restoration for a series of battle paintings commissioned by the duc d'Orleans, the future King Louis-Philippe. Critics marvelled at the incredible speed with which he painted.Ruutz-Rees, Janet E. (Janet Emily) (1880). Horace Vernet. New York: Scribner and Welford. Many of his paintings made during this early phase of his career were "noted for their historical accuracy as well as their charged landscapes".The Art of War[s]: Paintings of Heroes, Horrors and History – Chase Maenius Examples of paintings in this style include his Four Battles series: The Battle of Jemappes (1821), The Battle of Montmirail (1822), The Battle of Hanau (1824), and The Battle of Valmy (1826). Enjoying equal favour with the court and with the opposition, he was appointed director of the French Academy in Rome, from 1829 to 1835.

Over the course of his long career, Horace Vernet was honoured with dozens of important commissions. King Louis-Philippe was one of his most prolific patrons, and the whole of the Constantine room at the Palace of Versailles was decorated by him, in the short space of three years. The King requested that he paint a gallery dedicated to the "fruits of colonization". At the time, France was colonizing Algeria through war, and claiming it to be part of their mission civilisatrice, or their "civilizing mission". In a neoclassical style, reflecting the Roman colonization in North Africa about 2000 years before, Horace painted pictures of French non-commissioned officers training Algerian soldiers, French engineers building Algerian roads, and French soldiers tilling Algerian fields.{{Cite book|title=Empires in the sun : the struggle for the mastery of Africa|last=James |first=Lawrence |isbn=9781681774633|edition= First Pegasus books hardcover |location=New York|oclc=959869470|year = 2017}}{{Cite book|title=By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria|last=SESSIONS|first=JENNIFER E.|date=2011|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801456527|edition= 1st|jstor=10.7591/j.ctt20fw60j|chapter=By Sword and Plow}}

=Later career=

His depictions of Algerian battles, such as the Capture of the Smahla and the Capture of Constantine, were well received by other French people, as they were vivid depictions of their army in the heat of battle. After the fall of the July Monarchy during the Revolution of 1848, Vernet discovered a new patron in Napoléon III of France. He continued to paint representations of the heroic French army during the Second Empire and maintained his commitment to and realistic way. He accompanied the French Army during the Crimean War, producing several paintings, truthfully including one of the Battle of the Alma, which was not as well received as his earlier paintings. One well known and possibly apocryphal anecdote maintains that when Vernet was asked to remove a certain obnoxious general from one of his paintings, he replied, "I am a painter of history, sire, and I will not violate the truth", hence demonstrating his fidelity to representing war.

Vernet also developed an interest in daguerreotype photography. He took photographs in Egypt as reference material for his paintings, and during a stop at Malta in March 1840 while en route to Egypt, he took the earliest known photographs of the island at Fort Manoel. Today these early photographs are believed to be lost.{{cite news |last1=Bonello |first1=Giovanni |title=But who was the first Maltese photographer? |url=https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/but-who-was-the-first-maltese-photographer.701655 |work=Times of Malta |date=10 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630220058/https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/but-who-was-the-first-maltese-photographer.701655 |archive-date=30 June 2020}}

His nephew Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet, also a painter and his pupil, wrote Voyage d'Horace Vernet en Orient (2 volumes, 1844).

Vernet died in his hometown of Paris in 1863.

Literary references

In Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes claims to be related to Vernet, stating, "My ancestors were country squires... my grandmother... was the sister of Vernet, the French artist"; it is generally assumed that this individual is Émile Jean-Horace Vernet, because Horace was only 65 years older than Sherlock Holmes while the other Vernets lived much before. The Holmes-Vernet connection is also central to the plot of Laurie R. King's 2024 novel, The Lantern's Dance.

Gallery

File:Roustam - Vernet.jpg|Portrait of Roustam Raza, 1810

File:Vernet Battle of Somosierra.jpg|The Battle of Somosierra, 1816

File:Horace Vernet - Death of Prince Poniatowski.jpg|The Death of Prince Poniatowski, 1816

File:The Battle of Tolosa.png|The Battle of Tolosa, 1817

File:The Dog of the Regiment Wounded.png|The Dog of the Regiment Wounded, 1819

File:The Wounded Trumpeter.png|The Wounded Trumpeter, 1819

File:Siege of Saragossa.jpg|Siege of Saragossa, 1819

File:Portrait of the Général Marquis de Talhouët-Roy (by Horace Vernet).jpg|Portrait of the Général Marquis de Talhouët-Roy, 1819

File:Massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo.png|Massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo, 1819

File:La Barrière de Clichy. Défense de Paris, le 30 mars 1814 - Horace Vernet - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 126.jpg|The Barrier of Clichy, 1820

File:Laurent de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr.jpg|Portrait of Marshal Saint-Cyr, 1821

File:Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Napoleon's Tomb - P575 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|Napoleon's Tomb, 1821

File:Bataille de Jemmapes, 6 novembre 1792.jpg|The Battle of Jemappes, 1821

File:Vernet, Horace - The Artist's Studio - c. 1820.jpg|The Artist's Studio, 1821

File:Horace Vernet - The Vesuvius Erupting, the Artist and His Father, Carle Vernet, in the Foreground - 2014.254 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg|Vesuvius Erupting, 1822

File:Plague in Barcelona (1822), by Horace Vernet.jpg|Plague in Barcelona, 1822

File:Pablo-morillo.jpg|Portrait of Pablo Morillo, 1822

File:Joseph Vernet bundet til masten.jpg|Joseph Vernet Tied to a Mast During a Storm, 1822

File:Allan M'Aulay, Horace Vernet, 1823.jpg|Allan M'Aulay, 1823

File:Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - The Quarry - P614 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|The Quarry, 1823

File:Napoleon in Charleroi.png|Napoleon in Charleroi, 1823

File:Horace Vernet, Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault, probably 1822 or 1823, 1998.84, MET.jpg|Portrait of Théodore Géricault, 1823

File:Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Conrad the Corsair - P368 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|Conrad the Corsair, 1824

File:Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Duck Shooting - P608 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|Duck Shooting, 1824

File:Louis-Antoine d'Artois, duc d'Angoulême (1775–1844).jpg|Duke of Angoulême, 1824

File:The battle of Montmirail in 1814 (1822), by Horace Vernet.jpg|The Battle of Montmirail, 1824

File:Vernet-Battle of Hanau.jpg|The Battle of Hanau, 1824

File:Napoleon bids farewell to his Guard at Fontainebleau on 20 April 1814 (1825), by Horace Vernet.jpg|Napoleon Bids Farewell to His Guard, 1824

File:La Bataille du Pont d'Arcole.jpg|Napoleon at the Battle of Arcole, 1826

File:Valmy Battle painting.jpg|The Battle of Valmy, 1826

File:Bramante Basilica Julius II.jpg|Pope Julius II ordering Bramante and Michelangelo to design St Peter's Basilica, 1827

File:Horace Vernet Edith retrouvant le corps d'Harold 1827.jpg|Edith Recovering Harold's Body after the Battle of Hastings, 1827

File:Bataille de Bouvines gagnee par Philippe Auguste.jpg|The Battle of Bouvines, 1827

File:Vernet - Jean-Baptiste Isabey - Louvre.jpg|Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1828

File:Il brigante tradito horace vernet 1830 ciociaria.jpg|The Brigand Betrayed, 1828

File:The Battle of Fontenoy, 11th May 1745.png|The Battle of Fontenoy, 1828

File:Pie VIII porté dans la basilique de Saint-Pierre à Rome, by Horace Vernet, 1829, retouched.jpg|Pope Pius VIII brought to the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, 1829

File:An Algerian Lady Hawking.jpg|An Algerian Lady Hawking, 1829

File:Pierre-Narcisse Guérin H Vernet s d.jpg|Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1829

File:Portrait of Louise Vernet.png|Portrait of Louise Vernet, 1830

File:Polish Prometheus 1831.PNG|Polish Prometheus, 1831

File:Horace Vernet - Judith et Holopherne 01.jpg|Judith et Holopherne, 1831

File:OlympePélissierStudy.jpg|Study of Olympe Pelissier as Judith, 1831

File:Gabriel-Jean-Joseph, comte Molitor, maréchal de France (1770-1849).jpg|Portrait of Marshal Molitor, 1831

File:Vernet - 31 juillet 1830 - Louis-Philippe quitte le Palais-Royal.jpg|The Duke of Orleans leaving the Palais-Royal, 1832

File:Raphaël au Vatican (Louvre INV 8365).jpg|Raphael at the Vatican, 1832

File:Huntingpontinemarshes.jpg|Hunting in the Pontine Marshes, 1833

File:Carlo Alberto di Savoia (a cavallo).jpg|Carlo Alberto of Savoy, 1834

File:Napoleon friedland.jpg|The Battle of Friedland, 1835

File:Napoleon Wagram.jpg|The Battle of Wagram, 1835

File:Iena.jpg|The Battle of Jena, 1836

File:Horace Vernet Slave Market.JPG|The Slave Market, 1836

File:Horace Vernet The lion hunt-large.jpg|The Lion Hunt, 1836

File:La prise de Constantine 1837 par Horace Vernet.jpg|The Capture of Constantine, 1838

File:Napoléon aux Tuileries - Horace Vernet.jpg|Napoleon at the Tuileries, 1838

File:Tage 1831.jpg|Battle of the Tagus, 1840

File:Anvers 1832 horace vernet.jpg|The Siege of Antwerp, 1840

File:Combat de l'Habrah.jpg|The Battle of Habrah, 1840

File:Emile Jean Horace Vernet 001.jpg|Judah and Tamar, 1840

File:Épisode de l'expédition du Mexique en 1838.jpg|Scene from the Mexican Expedition in 1838, 1841

File:Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Arabs Travelling in the Desert - P584 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|Arabs Travelling in the Desert, 1843

File:Louis-Philippe et ses fils 2.jpg|Louis Philippe and His Sons, 1846

File:Vernet - Bataille d'Isly - 1846.jpg|The Battle of Isly, 1846

File:Émile Jean-Horace Vernet - The Angel of Death.jpg|The Angel of Death, 1851

File:The battle of the Alma in 1854 (1856), by Horace Vernet.png|The Battle of the Alma, 1856

File:Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Zouaves at the Malakoff - RCIN 406470 - Royal Collection.jpg|Zouaves at the Malakoff, 1856

File:Pierre Joseph François Bosquet.jpg|Portrait of Pierre Bosquet, 1857

File:François Certain de Canrobert Versailles.png|François Certain de Canrobert, 1857

File:La prise de Malakoff.jpg|The Taking of the Malakoff Redoubt, 1858

File:Wounded zouave (1858), by Horace Vernet.jpg|A Wounded Zouave, 1858

File:Maréchal Mac Mahon.jpg|Portrait of Marshal MacMahon, 1860