VERNET, Horace

Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet, known as Horace Vernet, was son of Antoine-Charles-Horace (known as ‘ Carle’) Vernet and grandson of Claude-Joseph Vernet, one of the leading French landscape painters of his period. He was one of the most prolific of French military painters, specializing in scenes of the Napoleonic era. He remained an ardent Bonapartist, and his chief work was the huge Gallery of Battles at Versailles, painted for Louis Philippe. A portrait of Napoleon and four battlepieces by him are in the National Gallery, London. He also did animal and Oriental subjects. From 1828 to 1835 he was Director of the French Academy in Rome. His sister married the costume-history painter Paul Delaroche.