Carle Vernet

Vocation

French painter, the son of painter Claude Joseph Vernet, and the father of painter Horace Vernet. Vernet was a pupil of his father and of Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. Strangely, after winning the grand prix (1782), his father had to recall him back from Rome to France to prevent him from entering a monastery. In his "Triumph of Aemilius Paulus," he broke with tradition and drew the horse with the forms he had learnt from nature in stables and riding-schools. His hunting-pieces, races, landscapes, and work as a lithographer were also very popular. Carle's sister Emilie was executed by the guillotine during the Revolution. After this, he gave up art. When he again began to produce under the French Directory (1795–1799), his style had changed radically. He started drawing in minute detail battles and campaigns to glorify Napoleon. His drawings of Napoleon's Italian campaign won acclaim as did the Battle of Marengo, and for his Morning of Austerlitz Napoleon awarded him the Legion of Honour. Louis XVIII of France awarded him the Order of Saint Michael. Afterwards he excelled in hunting scenes and depictions of horses. In addition to being a painter and lithographer, Carle Vernet was an avid horseman. Just days before his death at the age of seventy-eight, he was seen racing as if he were a sprightly young man. He died in Paris on 17 November 1836.