Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet

M. Thevenin and sold: his sale; Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, January 27, 1851, lot 71 (as Episode du siege de Saragosse)
W. William Hope (possibly acquired at the above sale and sold Paris, June 4-16, 1855, lot 24)
James Lenox, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Gifted from the above to the present owner

Sylvanus Urban, "M. Horace Vernet," The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review, London, vol XIV, April 1863, p. 523 (dating the work between 1820-1823) 
"The Lenox Library," Literary World, A Review of Current Literature, vol. IX, June 21, 1879, p. 201
Ernest Ingersoll, A Week in New York, New York, 1891, p. 251
Gustav Kobbé, New York and Its Environs, New York, 1891, p. 226
Appleton's Dictionary of New York and its Vicinity, New York, 1892, p. 147
Scribner's Magazine, v. 50, June-July 1911, p. 628
John Dennison Champlain, Jr., ed., Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, New York, 1913, p. 357 (dating the work between 1820-1822)
Fremont Rider, ed., Rider's New York City and Vicinity including New York, Yonkers and Jersey City, New York, 1916, p. 193 (dating the work to 1808)
Horace Vernet (1789-1863), exh. cat., Rome, 1980, p. 21

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This marvelous picture has not been restored for a very long time and is extremely dirty. The canvas has an old lining and while the cracking is slightly raised, the paint layer is stable and the lining is sufficient. The paint layer is very dirty and will clean well to reveal a considerably brighter and more interesting palette. The main issue to the condition is some bituminous cracking which has developed in the following areas: the dark clothing of the monk holding the cross; the dark paint of the satchel behind the standing figure on the right; in some of the dark habit of the seated monk on the left and in a few other isolated patches in the lower portion of the picture. Almost all of the restorations have been applied to the dark pigment except for a few addressing what appears to be a pentimenti in the brick wall in the left side. If the picture were to be cleaned, all of the old retouches will be removed and there will be the opportunity to properly retouch the paint layer, which is generally in very good state with only slight abrasion in the upper right.
"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."

Horace Vernet was hailed by his contemporaries as of one of the brightest talents of the new Romantic school.  Born into a family of artists, the young Horace began his training in his father Carle's studio, where he would be influenced by his majestic horse paintings and epic battle scenes and by his friendship with fellow student Théodore Géricault. Although Vernet competed unsuccessfully for the Prix de Rome in 1810, the following decade brought him financial security through the sale of drawings and lithographs, many based on Napoleon's campaigns.  Vernet completed several important battle paintings from 1817 to 1830, including his Bataille de Tolosa (1817, Galerie de Batailles, Versailles) and four Napoleonic scenes commissioned by the Duc D'Orleans for the Galerie du Palais Royal in 1821. He also produced several small canvases, such as La Mort du trompete (1819, Wallace Collection, London), on a variety of Romantic themes (Lucy Marion MacClintock, Romantic actualité: contemporaneity and execution in the work of Delacroix, Vernet, Scheffer and Sigalon, unpublished dissertation, Harvard University, 1993, pp 75-77, n. 11).

The Siege of Saragossa, a work of rugged visual strength and compositional complexity, follows the example of Vernet's innovative early works, yet the exact date of its execution remains in question (see above literature references). A close examination of the painting's date, the painted numbers now obscured, suggests a date between 1810-1819. However, according to the chronology established for the 1980 Horace Vernet exhibition at the Académie de France in Rome, and based in part on Madame Vernet's records published in 1898, the Siege of Saragossa may be dated to 1808.

But 1808 may refer instead to the date in which this heroic scene took place. The first Siege of Saragossa was fought between June 15 and August 13, 1808, a critical chapter in the bloody events of the Peninsular War, followed in the next year by the second siege.  The Spanish Captain-General José de Palafox y Melzi declared war on The French and led the people of Aragon into revolt, prompting Napoleon's General Lefebvre to lead a French battalion to storm the Spanish city of Saragossa. Despite the power of the French army and the perceived weaknesses of the city's defense fortress, angry crowds of Saragossa's civilians engaged in guerilla fighting through the city streets.  A notable portion of the Spanish defenders was made up of monks from local monasteries. The memoirs of the French general Baron Lejeun described the amazing defensive power of one holy man named "San Yago Saas who had distinguished himself in the... siege as a brilliant leader and ardent preacher... he had himself butchered seventeen Frenchmen. Sword in hand, sleeves flung back over the shoulders, leaving the arms bare, robe tucked up, and splashed with blood from head to foot, the furious monk ran to and fro in the ranks saying to each soldier, 'Follow my example, and there won't be one of them left'" (Memoirs of Baron Lejeune, volume I, New York, 1897, p. 140). Such heroics are recorded in Vernet's dramatic painting, as a soldier stands with a group of monks on blasted masonry ruins, one holding a powerful blunderbuss (muzzle loading firearm) while others hold a cross to the heavens, a spiritual defense against the entreating French. Vernet's Romantic sensibilities are particularly effective in such a composition, in which he experiments with the academic construction of a battle scene. The narrative is difficult to untangle: the action is confused, the space unclear, the colors darkly nuanced, the figures, so closely overlapped, seem to blur into one another. With its contrasts of highly finished elements of costume, weaponry, and facial expression, and unfinished swatches of swirling smoke and destroyed landscape, Vernet's work creates an almost otherworldly scene which does more than record history—provoking an emotional, visceral response in viewers (for further discussion of Vernet's Romanticism see: MacClintock, p. 89). 

This incredible visual power helped earn The Siege of Saragossa a place in the galleries of W. William Hope, an important collector of Old Master and early nineteenth century painting living in Paris. Over the course of several sales in the 1850s, Hope's inventory was sold and its "impeccable provenance" was a key element in related marketing efforts (see Charles Blanc's introduction in the May 11, 1858 Hôtel Drouot sale catalogue). Fittingly, American bibliophile, art connoisseur, and philanthropist James Lenox (1800-1880) would purchase works from Hope's sales (including Paul Delaroche's Field of Battle, see lot 60) for his own esteemed collection which was the foundation of the Lenox Library before becoming part of the New York Public Library in 1895.  Throughout the late nineteenth century a visit to the Lenox Library was an important cultural stop in New York City. A 1891 city guidebook encouraged visitors to make trip to the Library  to see the "picture gallery of the second floor" in which  Vernet's "powerful canvas" hung among renowned portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, James Peale, and Rembrandt Peale, along with works by Sir Joshua Reynolds (Kobbé, p. 201).