VERNET, (MILE-JEAN-)HORACE

born June 30, 1789, Paris died Jan. 17, 1863, Paris French painter of sporting subjects and vast battle panoramas, notably those in the Gallery of Battles at Versailles. The son and grandson, respectively, of two well-known painters, Carle Vernet and Joseph Vernet, Horace developed a remarkable facility for working on a grand scale and became one of France's most important military painters. A Bonapartist, he specialized in glorifying the Napoleonic era. During the restoration of the monarchy after 1815, his studio was a centre of political intrigue as well as a meeting place for sportsmen, artists, and writers. A period with the French Army in Algiers (1833) inspired some paintings of the Arab world. He was subsequently commissioned by Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III to produce the battle pieces at Versailles.