Painting Detail
Self-PortraitArtist: Horace Vernet
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 47x39 cm
Date: 1835
Genre: Portrait
Source: Via the State Museum Fund from the collection of N. Ferzen, Petrograd, 1919
Grandson of Joseph and son of Carl Vernet, Horace eclipsed the fame of both. He was surrounded during his lifetime by a crowd of admirers and rich patrons; the press adored him; he was patronised by Louis-Philippe. Here Vernet depicted himself in his studio in Rome after a journey through North Africa. Oriental exotica - the baggy trousers, a red scarf at the waist, the blue fez, the long pipe, weaponry and carpet - is set against the prosaic details of the interior - the simple chair, the iron stove. Behind Vernet is a large empty canvas, suggesting that the artist is deep in thought, meditating of his next picture. Without being a particularly deep psychological study, this self-portrait provides us with an idea of Vernet's character: his sober, perceptive mind, his self-confidence, his tendency to show-off, his conformism.