Horace Vernet
Template:Short description Template:Infobox artist
Émile Jean-Horace Vernet ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 30 June 1789Template:Snd17 January 1863) more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects.
BiographyEdit
Early careerEdit
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<ref name="EB1911">{{#if: |
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}}{{#ifeq: ||}}</ref> 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 FranceEdit
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.<ref name=Rees >Ruutz-Rees, Janet E. (Janet Emily) (1880). Horace Vernet. New York: Scribner and Welford.</ref> Many of his paintings made during this early phase of his career were "noted for their historical accuracy as well as their charged landscapes".<ref>The Art of War[s]: Paintings of Heroes, Horrors and History – Chase Maenius</ref> 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.<ref name="EB1911"/>
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,<ref name=Rees /> and the whole of the Constantine room at the Palace of Versailles was decorated by him, in the short space of three years.<ref name="EB1911"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Later careerEdit
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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 referencesEdit
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.
GalleryEdit
- Roustam - Vernet.jpg
Portrait of Roustam Raza, 1810
- Vernet Battle of Somosierra.jpg
The Battle of Somosierra, 1816
- Horace Vernet - Death of Prince Poniatowski.jpg
- The Battle of Tolosa.png
The Battle of Tolosa, 1817
- The Dog of the Regiment Wounded.png
- The Wounded Trumpeter.png
The Wounded Trumpeter, 1819
- Siege of Saragossa.jpg
Siege of Saragossa, 1819
- Portrait of the Général Marquis de Talhouët-Roy (by Horace Vernet).jpg
Portrait of the Général Marquis de Talhouët-Roy, 1819
- Massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo.png
- 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
- Laurent de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr.jpg
- Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Napoleon's Tomb - P575 - The Wallace Collection.jpg
Napoleon's Tomb, 1821
- Bataille de Jemmapes, 6 novembre 1792.jpg
The Battle of Jemappes, 1821
- Vernet, Horace - The Artist's Studio - c. 1820.jpg
The Artist's Studio, 1821
- 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
- Plague in Barcelona (1822), by Horace Vernet.jpg
Plague in Barcelona, 1822
- Pablo-morillo.jpg
Portrait of Pablo Morillo, 1822
- Joseph Vernet bundet til masten.jpg
- Allan M'Aulay, Horace Vernet, 1823.jpg
Allan M'Aulay, 1823
- Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - The Quarry - P614 - The Wallace Collection.jpg
The Quarry, 1823
- Napoleon in Charleroi.png
Napoleon in Charleroi, 1823
- Horace Vernet, Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault, probably 1822 or 1823, 1998.84, MET.jpg
- Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Conrad the Corsair - P368 - The Wallace Collection.jpg
Conrad the Corsair, 1824
- Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Duck Shooting - P608 - The Wallace Collection.jpg
Duck Shooting, 1824
- Louis-Antoine d'Artois, duc d'Angoulême (1775–1844).jpg
Duke of Angoulême, 1824
- The battle of Montmirail in 1814 (1822), by Horace Vernet.jpg
The Battle of Montmirail, 1824
- Vernet-Battle of Hanau.jpg
The Battle of Hanau, 1824
- Napoleon bids farewell to his Guard at Fontainebleau on 20 April 1814 (1825), by Horace Vernet.jpg
Napoleon Bids Farewell to His Guard, 1824
- La Bataille du Pont d'Arcole.jpg
Napoleon at the Battle of Arcole, 1826
- Valmy Battle painting.jpg
The Battle of Valmy, 1826
- Bramante Basilica Julius II.jpg
Pope Julius II ordering Bramante and Michelangelo to design St Peter's Basilica, 1827
- Horace Vernet Edith retrouvant le corps d'Harold 1827.jpg
- Bataille de Bouvines gagnee par Philippe Auguste.jpg
The Battle of Bouvines, 1827
- Vernet - Jean-Baptiste Isabey - Louvre.jpg
Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1828
- Il brigante tradito horace vernet 1830 ciociaria.jpg
The Brigand Betrayed, 1828
- The Battle of Fontenoy, 11th May 1745.png
The Battle of Fontenoy, 1828
- 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
- An Algerian Lady Hawking.jpg
An Algerian Lady Hawking, 1829
- Pierre-Narcisse Guérin H Vernet s d.jpg
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1829
- Portrait of Louise Vernet.png
- Polish Prometheus 1831.PNG
Polish Prometheus, 1831
- Horace Vernet - Judith et Holopherne 01.jpg
Judith et Holopherne, 1831
- OlympePélissierStudy.jpg
Study of Olympe Pelissier as Judith, 1831
- Gabriel-Jean-Joseph, comte Molitor, maréchal de France (1770-1849).jpg
Portrait of Marshal Molitor, 1831
- Vernet - 31 juillet 1830 - Louis-Philippe quitte le Palais-Royal.jpg
The Duke of Orleans leaving the Palais-Royal, 1832
- Raphaël au Vatican (Louvre INV 8365).jpg
Raphael at the Vatican, 1832
- Huntingpontinemarshes.jpg
Hunting in the Pontine Marshes, 1833
- Carlo Alberto di Savoia (a cavallo).jpg
Carlo Alberto of Savoy, 1834
- Napoleon friedland.jpg
The Battle of Friedland, 1835
- Napoleon Wagram.jpg
The Battle of Wagram, 1835
- Iena.jpg
The Battle of Jena, 1836
- Horace Vernet Slave Market.JPG
The Slave Market, 1836
- Horace Vernet The lion hunt-large.jpg
The Lion Hunt, 1836
- La prise de Constantine 1837 par Horace Vernet.jpg
The Capture of Constantine, 1838
- Napoléon aux Tuileries - Horace Vernet.jpg
- Tage 1831.jpg
Battle of the Tagus, 1840
- Anvers 1832 horace vernet.jpg
The Siege of Antwerp, 1840
- Combat de l'Habrah.jpg
The Battle of Habrah, 1840
- Emile Jean Horace Vernet 001.jpg
Judah and Tamar, 1840
- Épisode de l'expédition du Mexique en 1838.jpg
Scene from the Mexican Expedition in 1838, 1841
- Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Arabs Travelling in the Desert - P584 - The Wallace Collection.jpg
Arabs Travelling in the Desert, 1843
- Louis-Philippe et ses fils 2.jpg
- Vernet - Bataille d'Isly - 1846.jpg
The Battle of Isly, 1846
- Émile Jean-Horace Vernet - The Angel of Death.jpg
The Angel of Death, 1851
- The battle of the Alma in 1854 (1856), by Horace Vernet.png
The Battle of the Alma, 1856
- Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet (1789-1863) - Zouaves at the Malakoff - RCIN 406470 - Royal Collection.jpg
Zouaves at the Malakoff, 1856
- Pierre Joseph François Bosquet.jpg
Portrait of Pierre Bosquet, 1857
- François Certain de Canrobert Versailles.png
- La prise de Malakoff.jpg
The Taking of the Malakoff Redoubt, 1858
- Wounded zouave (1858), by Horace Vernet.jpg
A Wounded Zouave, 1858
- Maréchal Mac Mahon.jpg
Portrait of Marshal MacMahon, 1860
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Dayot, Armand (1898). Les Vernet : Joseph—Carle—Horace. Paris: A. Magnier.
- Harkett, Daniel and Katie Hornstein, eds, (2017). Horace Vernet and the Thresholds of Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture. Dartmouth College Press/University Press of New England.
- Ruutz-Rees, Janet E. (Janet Emily) (1880). Horace Vernet. New York: Scribner and Welford.
- Sessions, Jennifer E. (2011), By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria. Cornell University Press.
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