Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet

Sale: Christie's, London, March 23, 1984, lot 89, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting does not appear to be lined but the tacking edges have most likely been reinforced. The paint layer is stable and clean, and has been recently restored. There are retouches addressing a few isolated cracks in the sky on the left side, few spots in the lower robe of the man and in the ground beneath the rear legs of the horse. There is a pentiment of the back legs of the horse which is visible yet not disturbing. Overall the condition is very good.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Many nineteenth-century European artists began their Middle Eastern journeys from Rome, having studied under some of the leading names in Orientalist painting, including Horace Vernet, who was appointed Director of the French Academy in 1828.  In 1835, Vernet was succeeded in this position by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Unlike Ingres, however, Vernet actually traveled to the Middle East, and on multiple occasions.  His first trip, made with the French army in 1833, was to Algeria.  The experience would have a profound impact on both Vernet's subject matter and his style: vigorously painted, brilliantly colored military and historical genre subjects would be traded for tightly painted costume studies and biblical scenes, made 'authentic' by their carefully recorded Middle Eastern settings. Eventually, Vernet's old and new interests would converge when he was commissioned by King Louise-Philippe to paint a series of epic pictures for the palace of Versailles, documenting the French conquest of Algeria. 

At the Paris Salon of 1836, Vernet exhibited The Lion Hunt (London, Wallace Collection) under the French title Chasse dans le désert de Sahara, 28 Mai 1833, implying that he had actually witnessed this event during the first of his foreign travels.  Its frenetic composition and swirling strokes of paint are classic Vernet, and provide a clear example of why contemporaries often criticized his early canvases as being 'scribbled at a gallop.' This Romantic sensibility would soon pass from Vernet to Eugène Delacroix, whose own paintings of the lion hunt combine - in spectacular fashion - direct observation, artistic influence, and a volatile imagination.

The present painting is an early example of the weightier, more studied examination of costumes, accessories, and animal form that would preoccupy Vernet from 1830 onward.  As this work demonstrates, the shift in style did little to detract from the dramatic power of Vernet's work: The solid mass of the fallen lion and the foot of the standing Arab figure, pressed against the big cat's flesh, is as compelling a portrayal of victory as any exuberant battle scene, and the heaving breath of the horse, spent after a day's chase, is as palpable a sensation as can be rendered in paint.