Description
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.
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.
Accession Number
1977.171
Medium
oil on fabric
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.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Vernet's self-portrait in Rome, painted during his directorship of the French Academy at the Villa Medici, is both a personal document and a professional statement. By depicting himself in Rome — the capital of the classical tradition and the destination of every ambitious French artist — Vernet positions himself as the inheritor of the academic tradition that the Villa Medici represented. But the self-portrait also reveals the man behind the public persona: a painter who was as comfortable on horseback with the chasseurs d'Afrique as he was in the academic salons of Paris, and who painted both battle scenes and classical subjects with equal facility.
Cultural Impact
The French Academy in Rome was the pinnacle of the French academic system, and Vernet's appointment as its director in 1829 was a recognition of his status as France's preeminent painter. His self-portrait from this period shows him at the height of his powers and prestige, surrounded by the classical ruins and Italian landscape that had formed the artistic education of generations of French painters before him.
Why It Matters
Self-Portrait in Rome is Vernet's declaration of authority: the director of the French Academy in the capital of Western art, painted by his own hand. It is the self-portrait of a man who has conquered both the battlefield and the salon — and who wants you to know it.
