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#0050
The Three Vernets
Soon the crush there was greater than in the Louvre
Galleries, and all the world was raving over La
Mort de Poniatowski; Le Grenadier de Waterloo;
Le Soldat-Laboureur; Le Cheval du Trompette ;
Le Chien du Regiment; the battles of Je77i7napes and
Valmy axiUMontmirail; La derniere Cartouche ; and
La defense de la barriere de Clichy.
These pictures, which soon became familiar to
every one, served not only to bring fame to the
young artist, but to sustain that Napoleonic legend
into which new life was soon to be breathed by the
superb lithographs of Charlet and Raffet, and the
songs of Beranger.
With consummate address Horace Vernet suc-
ceeded in touching every fibre of that complex
thing called “the public.” To attract the veterans
he displayed their glorious feats of arms; to catch
the simple, sentimental, bourgeois soul he displayed
the soldier-worker; while one of the best of his
canvases (now in the Louvre), La defe?ise de la
barriere de Clichy, was designed to attract the artist
and the serious amateur. From among this collec-
tion of pictures each section of the community
chose that which appealed to it most forcibly; and
thus at a single bound the astute artist leapt into
unanimous popularity. From that moment forward
he strode from one triumph to another. The revo-
lution of 1830, which released France from the
reign of the Bourbons, enabled Vernet to act as he
pleased, without, however, renouncing his senti-
mental feeling for Louis-Philippe, with whom he
was indeed on terms of personal friendship.
It was about this period, after having been for
some time director of the Ecole de Rome, that he
undertook his voyages to Syria, to Russia (whither
he was several times drawn by the warm sympathy
of the Czar), and to Algeria, where he followed the
French troops, pencil in hand, just as his father had
followed the victorious army of Napoleon in Italy.
From these distant travels he returned with a
plentiful harvest of precious
studies, whence sprang the
canvases which have added
most to his fame—those
now adorning the walls of
the Salle de Constantine
in the Versailles galleries,
notably La Bataille d’Lsly,
the Episodes du Siege de
Constantine, and La Prise
de la Smala dl Abd-el-Kader
par le Due d’Aumale, the
artist’s most famous pic-
ture.
During his stay in Russia
Horace Vernet produced
practically nothing but por-
traits, some of them real
masterpieces.
All the historical person-
ages figuring in his cele-
brated picture D Atelier
d’Horace Vernet are treated
with infinite art. The por-
traits of Marshal Canrobert,
Princess Radziwill, Comte
de Castellane, and Mile.
Mars are full of strong and
thoughtful work; and in
all the extensive Napole-
onic portraiture I do not
know that there exists a
likeness of the great Em-
peror more life-like, more
Soon the crush there was greater than in the Louvre
Galleries, and all the world was raving over La
Mort de Poniatowski; Le Grenadier de Waterloo;
Le Soldat-Laboureur; Le Cheval du Trompette ;
Le Chien du Regiment; the battles of Je77i7napes and
Valmy axiUMontmirail; La derniere Cartouche ; and
La defense de la barriere de Clichy.
These pictures, which soon became familiar to
every one, served not only to bring fame to the
young artist, but to sustain that Napoleonic legend
into which new life was soon to be breathed by the
superb lithographs of Charlet and Raffet, and the
songs of Beranger.
With consummate address Horace Vernet suc-
ceeded in touching every fibre of that complex
thing called “the public.” To attract the veterans
he displayed their glorious feats of arms; to catch
the simple, sentimental, bourgeois soul he displayed
the soldier-worker; while one of the best of his
canvases (now in the Louvre), La defe?ise de la
barriere de Clichy, was designed to attract the artist
and the serious amateur. From among this collec-
tion of pictures each section of the community
chose that which appealed to it most forcibly; and
thus at a single bound the astute artist leapt into
unanimous popularity. From that moment forward
he strode from one triumph to another. The revo-
lution of 1830, which released France from the
reign of the Bourbons, enabled Vernet to act as he
pleased, without, however, renouncing his senti-
mental feeling for Louis-Philippe, with whom he
was indeed on terms of personal friendship.
It was about this period, after having been for
some time director of the Ecole de Rome, that he
undertook his voyages to Syria, to Russia (whither
he was several times drawn by the warm sympathy
of the Czar), and to Algeria, where he followed the
French troops, pencil in hand, just as his father had
followed the victorious army of Napoleon in Italy.
From these distant travels he returned with a
plentiful harvest of precious
studies, whence sprang the
canvases which have added
most to his fame—those
now adorning the walls of
the Salle de Constantine
in the Versailles galleries,
notably La Bataille d’Lsly,
the Episodes du Siege de
Constantine, and La Prise
de la Smala dl Abd-el-Kader
par le Due d’Aumale, the
artist’s most famous pic-
ture.
During his stay in Russia
Horace Vernet produced
practically nothing but por-
traits, some of them real
masterpieces.
All the historical person-
ages figuring in his cele-
brated picture D Atelier
d’Horace Vernet are treated
with infinite art. The por-
traits of Marshal Canrobert,
Princess Radziwill, Comte
de Castellane, and Mile.
Mars are full of strong and
thoughtful work; and in
all the extensive Napole-
onic portraiture I do not
know that there exists a
likeness of the great Em-
peror more life-like, more