Antoine-Charles-Horace Vernet, called Carle Vernet

Anonymous sale, M^es Ader and Tajan, Paris, Hôtel George V, 15 December 1993, lot 94;

Where acquired, private collection, Paris;

Anonymous sale, Artcurial, Paris, 27 March 2015, lot 125.

This magnificent watercolour by Carle Vernet, with its clear and harmonious composition, probably dates to 1810–1812, not long after the success of one of his best paintings, The Morning of the Battle of Austerlitz, which was much admired at the 1808 Salon by Napoleon, who awarded him the Légion d’Honneur. In 1810, the Emperor had reached his apogee. Ruler of an immense Empire, he had just forged an alliance, through his marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria (see lot 80), with one of the most powerful monarchies of Europe.

The sheet shows a group of hunters who have halted and are listening to the instructions given by the Emperor positioned at the centre of the composition. He is easily recognizable, unlike the marshals who surround him, all wearing the imperial green hunting attire. Three young women seated in a landau are accompanying the hunt.

A watercolour of a similar size was with the Galerie Coatalem in 2000. The subject differs somewhat, with Napoleon and his entourage galloping towards a clearing with an obelisk, on the right. Since our sheet shows the hunters halted at the foot of this same obelisk, it is easy to imagine that the two works illustrate two separate stages in the hunt and were planned as pendants.

The watercolour is traditionally known as The Imperial Hunt Halting in the Forest of Fontainebleau, and this is the title we have used. However, it is difficult to be sure whether this is the forest of Fontainebleau or of Compiègne: the Emperor was fond of both estates. The obelisk, to date unidentified, may provide the answer.

No engravings of the subject seem to have been made; at least the subject does not appear in Armand Dayot’s catalogue, Carle Vernet, catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre gravé et lithographié, 1925.

An outstanding horseman, passionate and extremely knowledgeable about horses, Carle Vernet excelled at hunting scenes as well as battles of the Consulat and the Empire, which brought him fame and are today regarded as his finest works.