Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009510Self-Portrait in Rome
About the Artwork
Vernet stands before the Villa Medici, seat of the French Academy in Rome, where he was director from 1829 to 1835. The palette, brushes, and maulstick on the stepladder hint at his talent for painting large canvases. The artist's sideward glance, disheveled hair, and burning cigarette lend him a romantic aura. The recipient of numerous commissions for military paintings, Vernet was patronized by Jérôme Bonaparte (the youngest brother of Napoleon) and later taught at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right: H Vernet 1832 Rome
Provenance
Vicomte de Breteuil, Paris, by 1923. Paris sale, Pavillon Gabriel, 17 June 1977 (lot 46, repr.), Autoportrait, to Frederick Mont, New York. Purchased by the CMA in 1977.
Exhibition history
The Artist and the Studio in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 5-August 13, 1978). Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984). Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989). Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Da Ingres à Degas. Les artistes français à Rome. Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, NY (September 9-November 9, 2003).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Horace Vernet (French, 1789–1863)
- Date
- 1832
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 78.5 x 67 x 8 cm (30 7/8 x 26 3/8 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 65 x 54.2 cm (25 9/16 x 21 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1977.171
More by Horace Vernet in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009510
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