Carle VERNET (1758–1836) - Lot 581

Carle VERNET (1758–1836) A young rider holding the reins of his bay horse in a stable courtyard. Oil on canvas, signed toward the middle on the right and dated “179[...]” Height: 50 cm Length: 61 cm Re-stretching and restoration. Note: Known for having been an excellent horseman in his youth, “elegant, well-limbed, [with] a handsome figure,” Carle Vernet is probably the French painter to whom we owe the recognition of the horse as a subject in its own right in French art. According to his biographer Charles Blanc: “Carle Vernet was the first to take the trouble to go to the stud farm or the riding arena; he restored to the horse its lively gaits, its expectant expression, its grace, its coquettishness, the sparkle in its eyes, and its flaring nostrils.” It was said of him that upon arriving in Rome, “he began, like everyone else, to contemplate Raphael’s frescoes and the paintings of Jules Romain and Salvator; but it was mainly to see how these masters had painted horses.” Moreover, in his 1789 inaugural piece, “The Triumph of Paul Emile,” the impetuous figures of the horses in the triumphant procession constitute one of the highlights of this monumental composition (129.9 x 438.2 cm, New York, The Metropolitan Museum, inv. 06.144). Having passionately documented, in turn, the rituals of the stables, the exercises of the Franconi equestrian circus, the twists and turns of court hunts, the excitement of the races, and the clatter of cavalry clashes, Vernet creates in this painting a remarkable double portrait, accordinging as much—if not more—importance to the horse as to its master. As such, our previously unpublished painting stands as a remarkable testament to the burgeoning passion for horses that was about to revolutionize 19th-century high society.