Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects.

Biography

Horace Vernet - Italian Brigands Surprised by Papal Troops - Walters 3754

Vernet was born to

Carle Vernet Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, better known as Carle Vernet (14 August 175827 November 1836), was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet and the father of Horace Vernet. Biography Vernet was born in Bordeaux. At the age o ...

, another famous painter, who was himself a son of

Claude Joseph Vernet Claude-Joseph Vernet (14 August 17143 December 1789) was a French painter. His son, Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, was also a painter. Life and work Vernet was born in Avignon. When only fourteen years of age he aided his father, Antoine Vernet ...

. He was born in the

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, while his parents were staying there during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. Vernet quickly developed a disdain for the high-minded seriousness of academic French a work which was distinguished by art influenced by

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

, 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 A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

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'' 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''. He gained recognition during the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * ...

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." Examples of paintings in this style include his Four Battles series: ''The

Battle of Jemappes The Battle of Jemappes (6 November 1792) took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), near Mons during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. One of the first major off ...

'' (1821), ''The

Battle of Montmirail The Battle of Montmirail (11 February 1814) was fought between a French force led by Emperor Napoleon and two Allied corps commanded by Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken and Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg. In hard fighting that lasted until evenin ...

'' (1822), ''The

Battle of Hanau The Battle of Hanau was fought from 30 to 31 October 1813 between Karl Philipp von Wrede's Austro-Bavarian corps and Napoleon's retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition. Following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig ...

'' (1824), and ''The

Battle of Valmy The Battle of Valmy, also known as the Cannonade of Valmy, was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution. The battle took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops comm ...

'' (1826). Enjoying equal favour with the court and with the opposition, he was appointed director of the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1 ...

, from 1829 to 1835. Over the course of his long career, Horace Vernet was honoured with dozens of important commissions.

King Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

was one of his most prolific patrons, and the whole of the Constantine room at the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

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 civilsatrice'', 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 officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

s training Algerian soldiers, French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

s building Algerian roads, and French soldiers

tilling Tilling can mean: * Tillage, an agricultural preparation of the soil. * TILLING (molecular biology) * Tilling is a fictional town in the Mapp and Lucia novels of E. F. Benson. * Tilling Green, Ledshire, is a fictional village in Patricia Wentwo ...

Algerian fields. His depictions of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n 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 The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...

during the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

, Vernet discovered a new patron in

Napoléon III of France Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

. He continued to paint representations of the heroic French army during the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

and maintained his commitment to and realistic way. He accompanied the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, producing several paintings, truthfully including one of the

Battle of the Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septemb ...

, 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 Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

photography. He took photographs in Egypt as reference material for his paintings, and during a stop at

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in March 1840 while en route to Egypt, he took the earliest known photographs of the island at

Fort Manoel Fort Manoel ( mt, Forti Manoel or ''Fortizza Manoel'') is a star fort on Manoel Island in Gżira, Malta. It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John, during the reign of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, after whom it ...

. Today these early photographs are believed to be

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

. Vernet died in his hometown of

in 1863.

Literary references

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

story "

The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as ''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes''. The story was originally published in ...

", Holmes claims to be related to Vernet, stating, "My ancestors were country squires... my grandmother... was the sister of Vernet, the French artist.", without further clarifying whether this is

, or Horace Vernet.

Gallery

File:Valmy Battle painting.jpg, ''The Battle of Valmy'' (1826) File:Polish Prometheus 1831.PNG, ''Polish Prometheus'' (1831) File:Horace Vernet 1833 HuntingInThePontineMarshes.jpg, ''Hunting in the Pontine Marshes'' (1833) File:Épisode de l'expédition du Mexique en 1838.jpg, ''Scene from the Mexican Expedition in 1838'' (1841) File:Horace Vernet - Judith et Holopherne 01.jpg, ''Judith et Holopherne'', 1831 File:Vernet - La prise de Malakoff.jpg, ''The Taking of the Malakoff Redoubt'' (1858) File:An Algerian Lady Hawking.jpg, ''An Algerian Lady Hawking'' (1829) File:Siege of Saragossa.jpg, ''Siege of Saragossa'' (1819) File:Bramante Basilica Julius II.jpg, ''Pope Julius II ordering Bramante and Michelangelo to design St Peter's Basilica'' (1827)

Biography

Literary references

Gallery

References

Further reading