The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"

The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"

Nadar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Based on a photograph this wood engraved portrait of Horace Vernet appeared in the "Illustrated London News" to illustrate a long obituary—the periodical regularly reported news of important artists. Related text on page 126 describes Vernet's eminent career, stressing how highly he had been regarded by artistic contemporaries, and also the Emperor Napoléon III, who had made him a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor. Vernet's genuine humanity is stressed: "while as an artist his works entitle him to a large space in the history of modern French painting, as a citizen his kind, generous, and obliging nature had endeared Horace Vernet to all who had ever come in contact with him. His abilities were not more highly appreciated by the august occupant of the Palace of the Tuileries than by the extreme-ultra of the Paris ateliers."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"The Late Horace Vernet, from "Illustrated London News"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.