The Emperor, The Artist and The Collector

Interesting display at the Wallace Collection looking at the relationship between he 4th Marquis of Hertford and the artist Horace Vernet.

Both the Marquis and Vernet admired Napoleon. Vernet’s work reflected this admiration both in his early work when Napoleon was in power and later during the Bourbon Restoration. He created a nostalgic image of Napoleon and of the generals and troops who had served under him. Richard Seymour, the 4th Marquis of Hertford, loved near Vernet’s studio in Paris and bought 46 paintings and 8 watercolours. He had been just 15 at the time of Waterloo.

25 of the pictures the Marquis bought were auctioned in1913 and didn’t make it into the collection and in this show one of these, on loan, was shown alongside seven belonging to the gallery. I’d read up on the show before I went and the paintings were smaller than I’m imagined despite their epic subjects. The pictures ranged from the overblown such as a picture of the death of Napoleon with the generals waiting to receive him in heaven, the sentimental, “The Dog of the Regiment Wounded”.

The display made an interesting insight into a post Napoleonic world I know very little about.

Closes 17 July 2022

 

 

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