Carle VERNET (1758-1836)

Lot 10
Go to lot
Estimation :
1000 - 1500 EUR
Carle VERNET (1758-1836)
The jockey led to the race around 1800. Feather and watercolor 17.6 x 16 cm. On her deathbed, Carle Vernet had this good word: "They will say of me what they said of the Grand Dauphin: Son of a king, father of a king, and never a king". Carl was the son of Joseph, the immense painter of Louis XV's Ports de France, and the father of Horace, a formidable all-round painter, author - among others - of Abd-el-Kader's stunning Prise de la Smalah, at ease in all genres, the incarnation of a touching 19th century. A precocious pupil of Lépicié (fig.1.) and a passionate horse-rider, Carle nevertheless did not fail to distinguish himself on many occasions in his career in the Arts: first, in 1781, with a Prix de Rome, then, later, with his numerous successes in lithograph publishing, and finally, in 1808, with a Légion d'Honneur, for his Battle of Marengo (Musée du château de Versailles, inv. MV1568), an event of which he was once a direct witness. A decorated military painter, his name is also linked to the passion for horse-riding which, at the beginning of the 19th century in England, took on an unprecedented scale. He was the first of the hippophile painters to attend all the races, to sketch the anecdotes of stables and his people of workers (jockeys, lads, etc.). Géricault (his pupil), Delacroix, De Dreux, Degas, etc. are indebted to him for these novelties. Forming a happy trio with the engravers Darcis and Debucourt, Carle publishes abundant illustrations on the world of racing, which will earn him a great popular success. Our drawing can be compared, in the jockey's right posture and the side view of the mount, with The Finish of the Race (fig.2), engraved by Darcis, the last illustration of a series of four, which also includes Les apprêts d'une course, Les jockeys montés and La Course. Let us also mention Les préparatifs d'une course, engraved by Debucourt (fig.3). Executed in a faster, spontaneous and synthetic way tha
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue