Carle Vernet for Thursday Art Day
Being an Arabian horse breeder there was always a vision in my minds eye as to the appearance of the Arabian horse in the 1800’s. The artists Victor Adam (another day) and Carle Vernet painted the romance and an exact duplicate of my vision. Vernet’s Mameluke horses are full of strength and vigour.

Mameluk ascending the Mountains

Though clearly small in stature with refined limbs Vernet’s Arabian horses had a symmetry and balance I have considered vital in a pure-bred Arabian.

MuradI

Vernet perfectly depicted the character and personality of the horses he painted, in many situations  his horses were brave and willing, defiant and surefooted, while others were supremely beautiful.

Wild horses fighting 1824
I am thrilled to feature Carle Vernet this Thursday.
Do you have an artist who’s inspired your breeding program?

A Mameluk Leading his Horse (Private Collection)

Vernet, Carle (1758-1835)

Antoine Charles Horace Vernet aka. Carle Vernet was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet, and the father of Horace Vernet. Born in Bordeaux, Vernet was a pupil of Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. Strangely, after winning the grand prix (1782), his father had to recall him to France to prevent him from entering a monastery.

In his Triumph of Paulus Aemilius, he broke with tradition and drew the horse with the forms he had learnt from nature in stables and riding-schools. His hunting-pieces, races, landscapes, and work as a lithographer were also very popular.
Carle’s sister was executed by the guillotine during the Revolution. When he again began to produce, his style had changed radically. His drawings of Napoleon’s Italian campaign won acclaim as did the Battle of Marengo, and for his Morning of Austerlitz Napoleon awarded him the Legion of Honour. Louis XVIII of France awarded him the Order of Saint Michael.

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