DOI Heft:
No. 63 (June, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Dayot, Armand: The three Vernets: Joseph, Carle, Horace
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21969#0042
The Three Vernets
CARLE VERNET
FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY HORACE VERNET
He was the precursor
of the English Roman-
tic school; and even
now, a century away,
one may discover
traces of his soft and
glowing manner in the
light and luminous can-
vases of Corot.
After eighteen years
spent in Italy he re-
turned to France.
While in Rome he
received a visit from
the Marquis de Mar-
igny, brother of La
Pompadour, and di-
rector of Fine Arts in
France, who was the
bearer of a Royal
command. Vernet
was commissioned to
paint the great French
ports, a work which
Caumont and the Comte de Quinson, Joseph
started for Italy, where he was destined to re-
main for eighteen years, returning covered with
glory, the creator of many masterpieces. The
great marine painter revealed himself during the
crossing from Marseilles to Civita Vecchia, in
which he nearly perished. Seeing his vessel on
the point of sinking in a storm, and having
watched to the last the terrifying struggle of the
elements, Joseph Vernet had himself bound to
the mast. From that hour he realised that the
tragic dramatic beauty of things was just as keen
in reality as in story or romance, and tearing in
two the “classical” programme he had mapped
°ut for himself, in deference to his old father and
his noble protectors, he broke right away from
academic tradition and planted his easel in the
midst of Nature itself, beside the boundless sea,
near the roaring torrents, under the cool shade
of the trees, or on the sunlit country-side.
Thus Joseph Vernet became a true innovator
in landscape art. The French landscape school
existed simply in the pompous scenes by Lebrun,
or the charming but purely artificial fancies of
Watteau and Boucher. Vernet guided his art in
the direction of real beauty; for there is nothing
false in his work, which is instinct with a true and
noble feeling for all that is honest and genuine.
HORACE VERNET BY L. MASSANET
29
CARLE VERNET
FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY HORACE VERNET
He was the precursor
of the English Roman-
tic school; and even
now, a century away,
one may discover
traces of his soft and
glowing manner in the
light and luminous can-
vases of Corot.
After eighteen years
spent in Italy he re-
turned to France.
While in Rome he
received a visit from
the Marquis de Mar-
igny, brother of La
Pompadour, and di-
rector of Fine Arts in
France, who was the
bearer of a Royal
command. Vernet
was commissioned to
paint the great French
ports, a work which
Caumont and the Comte de Quinson, Joseph
started for Italy, where he was destined to re-
main for eighteen years, returning covered with
glory, the creator of many masterpieces. The
great marine painter revealed himself during the
crossing from Marseilles to Civita Vecchia, in
which he nearly perished. Seeing his vessel on
the point of sinking in a storm, and having
watched to the last the terrifying struggle of the
elements, Joseph Vernet had himself bound to
the mast. From that hour he realised that the
tragic dramatic beauty of things was just as keen
in reality as in story or romance, and tearing in
two the “classical” programme he had mapped
°ut for himself, in deference to his old father and
his noble protectors, he broke right away from
academic tradition and planted his easel in the
midst of Nature itself, beside the boundless sea,
near the roaring torrents, under the cool shade
of the trees, or on the sunlit country-side.
Thus Joseph Vernet became a true innovator
in landscape art. The French landscape school
existed simply in the pompous scenes by Lebrun,
or the charming but purely artificial fancies of
Watteau and Boucher. Vernet guided his art in
the direction of real beauty; for there is nothing
false in his work, which is instinct with a true and
noble feeling for all that is honest and genuine.
HORACE VERNET BY L. MASSANET
29