Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd

Description

A Cossack Seated and Smoking at the Foot of a Tree Next to his Unsaddled Horse, signed and dated 1822.

Gouache with gum arabic on buff paper. Signed with the artists monogram H.V. (lower left) and inscribed p: (pinx or painted) with title A lé nip (lower right). A further inscription just outside the image below the framing line reads le 2(?) Mai (21 or possibly 24? May) – 1822 – S’ Petersburg. Damage has occurred outside the black framing line. Some fragments which include part of the inscription for Petersburg have been retained. The top and bottom left corners are missing. The image however is in good order. A lithograph of the subject (without title) was printed by the artist and will accompany the sale of the painting.

The Lithograph: Described in the catalogue lithographic works by Mr. J. E. Horace Vernet, published Paris July 1826: No.109 Cossack seated at the foot of a tree, and smoking – his unsaddled horse is tied behind him to the tree against which he is leaning -, in the background we see other soldiers.

There are slight variations between the painting and the print. In the painting there are no soldiers in the background the owners branded monogram on the rear of the horse is more clearly visible and positioned higher than the printed version, also the Cossack is not resting on a saddle or coat as is shown in the print.

This painting is a newly discovered work by this important artist.

Horace Vernet was born in Paris in 1789 and was predestined for art by family inheritance: the grandson of the engraver Jean Moreau le Jeune (1741-1814) on his mother’s side and, on his father’s, of Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), France’s foremost painter of land- and seascapes, he was casually trained by his father, Carle Vernet (1758-1836), the witty chronicler of the elegancies of the post-Revolutionary decades and the empire. A prodigy in his childhood, a professional in his teens, he was spurred by financial needs arising from his early marriage in 1811 to exploit his phenomenal native facility. A torrent of saleable work soon poured from his studio: fashion designs, caricatures, portraits, horses in the manner of Carle, and landscapes in the manner of Joseph. In 1814 he was among the civilian defenders of Paris against the approaching allies, an episode he later represented in La Barrière de Clichy (1820, Louvre). In the early years of the Restoration, his studio became the meeting place of artists and veterans openly hostile to the Bourbon government. Much to that government’s irritation, he flaunted his cult of Napoleon and found a patron in Louis-Philippe, duc d’Orléans, head of the disaffected cadet branch of the dynasty. A resolute modernist but little affected by romanticism, he befriended Gericault and was one of the Pioneers of lithography.
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CONDITION AND PRESENTATION
If a picture is shown to be framed, then the frame will be included with the sale of the picture. All the pictures we offer are available for purchase in the condition you see them advertised. More details including high resolution images can be sent for closer inspection. For added protection unframed and mounted pictures are wrapped in clear polyester film before shipping to the customer.