Antoine-Charles-Horace Vernet, dit Carle Vernet

With Auguste Laube, Zurich, 1984;

Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 9 July 2002, lot 104.

Napoléon, l'Empereur sous la verrière du Grand Palais : La collection Pierre-Jean Chalençon, cat. exh. Grand Palais, Paris 2018, pp. 78-79.

A luxurious publication by Maréchal Berthier, relating episodes from the Battle of Marengo, was published in 1805. Berthier himself presented it to Napoleon at an official ceremony planned for 14 June 1805, the anniversary of the victory, but which in fact took place a month earlier, on 5 May.

On the battlefield, Berthier, seen from the back, indicates the work with his marshal’s baton to Napoleon on horseback, who is wearing the uniform of the Foot Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard. Behind, a grenadier holds the marshal’s horse. The troops canter past in the background.

The frontispiece of the imperial copy (Musée National de Malmaison) featured a watercolour with gouache by Carle Vernet: the present version is a replica. The fine, precise technique and the brushstroke, both supple and meticulous, allow it to be assigned to Carle Vernet. It may have been a version produced for Maréchal Berthier. Today, we know only two other versions, one being at the Malmaison.