François-André Vincent

Collection of the artist;

His inventory after death;

His sale after death, Paris, 17-19 October 1816, lot 61;

Descent of François Griois, brother-in-law of the artist;

Private Collection, Gisors, in the 1970s;

Anonymous sale, M^e Grandin, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 13 February 1981, unnumbered;

With M. W. Brady, New York, in 1984;

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Paris, 27 June 2002, lot 110;

Where acquired by the present owner.

'New York French Drawings', in The Burlington Magazine, CXXVI, August 1984, pp. 523-524, fig. 46;

J. Foucart and M. Laclotte, Nouvelles acquisitions du Département des Peintures (1983-1986), Paris 1987, p. 142;

J.-P. Cuzin, 'Un bel échec : La Bataille des Pyramides de François-André Vincent', in Mélanges offerts à Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, Versailles 2009, pp. 102-105, fig. 7, note 26;

J.-P. Cuzin, François-André Vincent 1746-1816 entre Fragonard et David, Paris 2013, p. 502, no. 666 D;

P.-J. Chalençon, Napoléon. La collection, Paris 2019, pp. 18-21 (as a command from Napoleon for the Château de Grosbois).

Exhibited

Napoleon: An Intimate Portrait. A travelling exhibition from the Russell Etling Company featuring the Collection of Pierre-Jean Chalençon, Catalogue by Pierre-Jean Chalençon, Brett Topping and Russell Hull Etling, Russell Etling Company, 2005-2011, p. 18;

Versailles, Les Guerres de Napoléon. Louis François Lejeune, général et peintre, February-March 2012, no. 83;

Rueil-Malmaison, Napoléon, la passion d'un collectionneur, collection Chalençon, September-November 2012 (without catalogue).

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.