Provenance
Pierre-Hippolyte Aumont [d. 1865], by 1846.[1] Probably (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 6 May 1870, no. 4, as _Chasse dans les marais Pontins_).[2] (sale, Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, 12 December 1988, no. 78); purchased 18 January 1989 by NGA.
[1] In a Paris sale, _Tableaux modernes provenant en partie de la collection de M. D***_, 29 March 1862, a painting by Horace Vernet, _Chase au marais_, figured under no. 53. The dimensions, given as 51 x 41 cm, are so much smaller than those of the picture in the NGA that a confusion with it seems not possible. The painting was lent by Aumont to the 1846 exhibition at the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle.
[2] This sale reference did not appear in the NGA's systematic catalogue entry on the painting (Lorenz Eitner, _French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Part I: Before Impressionism_, New York and Oxford, 2000: 352-355), at which time the location of the painting's pendant, _Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes_, was not known. When the pendant appeared at auction in 2003 (it was subsequently purchased by the NGA and is now 2004.38.1), the sale catalogue cited Bruno Chenique's suggestion that NGA 1989.3.1 and NGA 2004.38.1 were lot numbers 4 and 5 in this 1870 sale.
Accession Number
1989.3.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100 × 137 cm (39 3/8 × 53 15/16 in.) | framed: 136.53 × 173.36 × 16.51 cm (53 3/4 × 68 1/4 × 6 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Chester Dale Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Horace Vernet (1789-1863) was France's most celebrated military and Orientalist painter of the July Monarchy, famous for his enormous battle scenes and his vivid depictions of North African and Middle Eastern life. Hunting in the Pontine Marshes — a companion to Departure for the Hunt — depicts the climax of a hunt in the notorious marshes south of Rome, where wild boar and waterfowl provided sport for the European aristocrats who visited Italy on the Grand Tour. The marshes themselves, with their malarial reputation and wild beauty, add a dimension of danger and exoticism to the hunting scene that a conventional European chase would lack.
Cultural Impact
The Pontine Marshes were one of the most famous landscapes in classical geography — the site of ancient Roman drainage projects, medieval abandonment, and 19th-century debate about whether they should be reclaimed. Vernet's painting, made during a period when the marshes had become a tourist destination for adventurous sportsmen, captures their ambiguous status as both a dangerous wasteland and a romantic wilderness. The hunting subject allows Vernet to combine his skill at animal painting, figure composition, and landscape in a single dramatic scene.
Why It Matters
Hunting in the Pontine Marshes is Vernet's romantic Italy: dangerous, exotic, and beautiful. The marshes are not just a backdrop for the hunt — they are the reason the hunt matters, providing the wildness and danger that elevated Italian sport above the tame chases of the French countryside.
