Carle Vernet

Vernet, Carle: <em>French Race Horses</em>French Race Horses, hand-coloured lithograph by Carle Vernet, undated; in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Carle Vernet (born August 14, 1758, Bordeaux, France—died November 27, 1836, Paris) was a French painter of battle scenes for Napoleon I and of sporting subjects, notably horses, for King Louis XVIII.

Vernet, Carle: Hussard Striking a Mameluck
Vernet, Carle: Hussard Striking a MameluckHussard Striking a Mameluck, lithograph by Carle Vernet, undated; in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The son of the popular landscapist Joseph Vernet, the younger Vernet early exhibited a gift for painting and came to develop an acute eye for natural detail. Although Napoleon commanded him to paint vast battle scenes, such as Marengo (1804), his real talent was for intimate genre and for drawing rather than for painting. His long series of fashionable studies, often satirizing contemporary manners and costume, were reproduced by the best engravers of the time. After the restoration of the monarchy, Vernet became court painter to Louis XVIII.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Citation Information
Article Title: Carle Vernet
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 12 April 2024
URL: https://www.britannica.comhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Carle-Vernet
Access Date: November 21, 2024