Carle VERNET (Bordeaux 1758-1836 Paris) - Lot 75

Lot 75
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Result : 1 000EUR
Carle VERNET (Bordeaux 1758-1836 Paris) - Lot 75
Carle VERNET (Bordeaux 1758-1836 Paris) The jockey led to the race, circa 1800. Pen and watercolor 17.6 x 16 cm. On his deathbed, Carle Vernet had this to say: "People will say of me what they said of the Grand Dauphin: Son of a king, father of a king, and never a king! Dauphin: Son of a king, father of a king, and never king! Carle was the son of Joseph, the immense painter of Louis XV's Ports de France, and the father of Horace, a formidable all-rounder, author - among other works - of Abd-el-Kader's stunning Prise de la Smalah, at ease in all genres and the embodiment of a nineteenth-century jack-of-all-trades. A precocious pupil of Lépicié and a keen equestrian, Carle also made a name for himself on many occasions in the world of the arts: as early as 1781, with a Prix de Rome, then, later, with his many successful lithograph editions, and finally, in 1808, with a Légion d'Honneur for his Bataille de Marengo (Musée du château de Versailles, inv. MV1568), an event he once witnessed at first hand. A decorated military painter, his name is just as closely linked to the passion for equestrianism, which took on unprecedented proportions in the early 19th century. He was the first of the hippophile painters to attend all the races, to sketch the anecdotes of the stables and its working people (jockeys, lad, etc.). Géricault (his pupil), Delacroix, De Dreux, Degas, etc. were indebted to him for these novelties. Forming a happy trio with the engravers Darcis and Debucourt, Carle published a wealth of illustrations on the world of racing, which earned him great popular success. Our drawing can be compared, in the upright posture of the jockey and the profile view of the mount, to L'arrivée de la course, engraved by Darcis, the last illustration in a suite of four, also including Les apprêts d'une course, Les jockeys montés and La Course. Also Les préparatifs d'une course, engraved by Debucourt. Executed more rapidly, spontaneously and synthetically than the usual finished, preparatory drawings for lithographs, such as the one for L'arrivée de la course (15.5 x 29 cm, De Baecque sale, June 6, 2020, lot 93), it is likely that our drawing was "taken on the spot", produced in the rush and excitement of the race just beginning, thus preceding the production of a composed, clean drawing useful to the lithographer.
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