Emile Jean Horace Vernet

Paintings

The Emperor Napoleon I

The Battle of Valmy

The Angel of Death

The Start of the Race of the Riderless Horses

The Maiden's Lament

The Death Angel or Death and the Maiden

Death of Prince Poniatowski on October 19th 1813

The Siege of Saragossa

The Tomb of Napoleon in Sainte-Helene or The Apotheosis of Napoleon

Death of Prince Poniatowski on October 19th 1813

The Battle of Jemappes

The Battle of Jena, 14th October 1806

The Battle of Montmirail

The Battle of Hanau

Judah and Tamar

Bertel Thorvaldsen

Italian Brigands Surprised by Papal Troops

Combat of a Greek and a Turk

Emperor Napoleon I and his Staff on Horseback

Judith and Holofernes

Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes

Self-Portrait in Rome

Napoleon at Charleroi Meditating over a Military Map

Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault

The Triumph of Aemilius Paulus

Emile Jean Horace Vernet

French King Louis-Philippe I (Louis Philippe) and his five sons

Hellenica World, Paintings, Drawings

Self-portrait

Hellenica World, Paintings, Drawings

Portrait of a Lady (Possibly Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Nee Fitzgerald [1796-1869])

The Emperor Napoleon I

Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 1789 – 17 January 1863) was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist Arab subjects.

Biography
Horace vernet

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 influenced by Classicism, and decided to paint subjects taken mostly from contemporary culture. Therefore, he began depicting the French soldier in a more familiar, vernacular manner rather than in an idealized, Davidian fashion. Some 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 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.[2] Many of his paintings made during this early phase of his career were "noted for their historical accuracy as well as their charged landscapes."[3] Examples of paintings in this style include the Battle of Valmy, the Battle of Jemappes, and the Battle of Montmirail.

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.[2] His depictions of Algerian battles, such as the Capture of the Smahla and the Capture of Constantine, were well-received, as they were vivid depictions of the French 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 representing war in an accessible and realistic way. He accompanied the French Army during the Crimean War, producing several paintings, 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 truthfully.

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.", without further clarifying whether this is Claude Joseph Vernet, Carle Vernet or Horace Vernet.

References

"Washington and Lee University". Home.wlu.edu. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
Ruutz-Rees, Janet E. (Janet Emily) (1880). Horace Vernet. New York: Scribner and Welford.

The Art of War[s]: Paintings of Heroes, Horrors and History - Chase Maenius