VERNET, EMILE-JEAN-HORACE, a celebrated French painter of battle-pieces, in whom may be said to have culminated the talent of a family through several generations distinguished in the sphere of art. His grandfather, CLAUDE JOSEPH, born in 1714, was a native of Avignon. By Antoine Vernet, his father, also a painter, Claude Joseph was early initiated in art, and going at the age of 18 tA) Italy, he remained there 20 years. Toward the end of that period, much of which had been passed in struggle and privation, his reputation as a landscape and marine painter had become so high that he was invited to Paris by Louis XV., who assigned him apartments in the Louvre. Between this time (1752) and his death in 1789 he painted an immense number of pictures, one of his chief undertakings being a series of large pieces commissioned by government, representing the chief seaports of France. These were 15 in number, and are still to be seen in the Louvre, with many other of his best works. During his life he was held to be, in France. without a rival in his own department; and an honorable rank continues to be assigned him among the painters of his country. Ile married at Rome an English lady, a Miss Parker, by whom he had a son. ANTOINE-CHARLES VERNET, born at Bordeaux in 1758, and popularly known as Carle Vernet. Carle received his education, in the first instance, from his father, and afterward at the academy of Paris, where, in 1782, he gained the chief prize, which brought with it the privilege, of which lie availed himself, of studying for some years in Rome. His subsequent success in Paris was great; he achieved the highest honors of the profession, became chevalier of the order of St. Michel, as also of the legion d'honneur, and died `Sept. 27, 1836. He was especially celebrated as a painter of horses; but his chief works were battle-pieces on a large scale, chiefly commemorative of the triumphs of the great emperor, and, as such, amazingly popular with the Parisian public. The principal are: "The Battle of Marengo," "The Morning of Austerlitz," "The Emperor giving orders to his Marshals," "'The Bom bardment of Madrid," "Battle of Itivoli." "Entrance of Napoleon into Milan,"-and "Battle of Wagram." The youth of HORACE VERNET, his son (born in Paris, June 30, 1789),was passed amid the tumults and anarchy of the revolution; and his general education was as irregular and incomplete as in such an element we might suppose it; but he had in his father a capable instructor in art, the hereditary genius for which very early became noted in him. It was the wish of his father that, as he had himself done, his son should go to study at Rome; but he failed in the competition for the traveling-pension for that pur pose, given by the acadOmie des beaux arts, and the scheme was necessarily abandoned. Undepressed by this disappointment, the young Vernet married and commenced his independent career as a painter, being then (1809) only 20 years of age. The role which he chose was that suggested at once by the previous success of his father and the mili tary intoxication of the Parisian public. Young as he still was, lie had served for some time as a soldier, not, so far as is known, with any special distinction, yet doubtless with such practical experience of the detail of a soldier's life in the field as would be found exceed ingly available in his efforts for distinction of another kind. Whereas the treatment of
military subjects by his father and others had been, hitherto, more or less of the con ventional and so-called imaginative kind, more properly to be called imaginary, the new aspirant, with his fuller sympathy and knowledge, sought for his effects in that seri ous rendering of truth which is the basis of all authentic imagination. In the halt, the bivouac, or the battle, the French soldier should be painted according to the veritable fact of the matter, as Vernet himself had seen, or could rigorously so conceive it. The success which rewarded this attempt at more earnest and truthful conception, was bril liant and instantaneous, his very first pictures of the kind—" The Dog of the Regiment and the Horse of the Trumpet, " Capture of the Redoubt," " Halt of French Soldiers," etc.—being received with an enthusiasm of favor accorded to those of no other artist. In 1812, to confirm this popular approval, the first-class medal was awarded to him; and in 1814 he had the title conferred on him, by the emperor, of chevalier of the legion d'honneur. The unrivaled popularity which he had thus at a bound achieved ever afterward remained with him; and the favor which be enjoyed from the emperor. whose victories he signalized on his canvas, was continued to him by the restored dynasty, whose sympathy with these favorite subjects, Which, as occasion served, lie combined as before to paint, could only be supposed imperfect. By Charles X. he was, in 1825, made officer of the legion d'honneur; and in the next year lie was elected member of the Institute. In 1827 he was appointed director of the French academy at Rome, whither lie went to reside, He remained there for several years; and on the withdrawal of the French legation, occasioned by the revolution of 1830, he was appointed to act as representative of his country at the Roman court.
With Louis Philippe, the services of Vernet were in especial request; and one of his most gigantic undertakings, the 7and series of paintings in the Constantine gallery at Versailles, commemorative of the triumphs of the French arms in Algeria, was a task prescribed him by that monarch. In pursuance of this object lie more than once visited Algeria; as, indeed, throughout his career lie frequently became a traveler on similar professional errands. To the last, honors continued to flow upon him. In 1842 be was made commander of the legion d'honneur; and in the universal exposition of 1855 the grand medal of honor was awarded to him. He died Jan. 17, 1863. He left behind him no children; his only daughter, wife of the celebrated Paul Delaroche, having died in 1845.
Though he by no means exclusively confined himself to military subjects, as witness. his well-known "School of Raphael," "Judith and Holofernes," and others, it is on his consummate treatment of these that his fame mainly rests; and in tills particular department, though he has many worthy competitors among his countrymen, no one of them can be said to equal him, With the utmost skill in effective composition, lie com bines in these works a surprising dash, vigor, and truthfulness; the movement and veritable fiery life of conflict is expressed in them with amazing effect. In the London international exhibition of 1862 some good specimens were exhibited.