Artwork
Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes
Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes is an oil painting by the Romanticist artist Horace Vernet. It dates from 1833 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
Created in 1833, Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes is an oil painting executed on canvas.
Created in 1833, Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes is an oil painting executed on canvas. The work measures 100 cm in height and 150.7 cm in width. Classified as a landscape, the composition features trees as a primary depicted element.
The handling of the oil medium captures a scene of equestrian activity within the Pontine Marshes environment, consistent with Horace Vernet's genre focus during this period.
History & Provenance
Horace Vernet completed this oil on canvas in 1833. The work was likely owned by Pierre-Hippolyte Aumont by 1846, a date inferred from his loan of the painting's pendant to an exhibition at the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle that year. It possibly appeared at auction in Paris on 6 May 1870 under the title Vue dans la forêt de Nettuno, though this identification remains a scholarly suggestion linking it to a sale lot containing the companion piece.
Following a period in a private French collection, the painting was offered at Drouot Richelieu in Paris on 17 October 2003. The Richard L. Feigen & Co. gallery in New York subsequently acquired the work before selling it to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., on 27 February 2004, where it remains.
Overview
Horace Vernet, a French artist recognized for his historical and Orientalist works, completed Departure for the Hunt in the Pontine Marshes in 1833. This oil on canvas painting presents a scene within the Pontine Marshes, focusing on a group preparing for a hunt. While landscape was not his primary genre, this work demonstrates Vernet's capacity for rendering natural environments.
Subject & Meaning
The painting portrays a tranquil moment as a hunting party gathers in the marshlands. Riders on horseback, accompanied by their dogs, appear poised to commence their pursuit. The composition emphasizes the stillness preceding the activity, with a solitary tree anchoring the expansive landscape. This depiction captures the calm anticipation inherent in such an event, set against a natural backdrop.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (French pronunciation:; 30 June 1789 – 17 January 1863), better known as Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects.
Bertel Thorvaldsen (1768–1844) with the Bust of Horace Vernet
Portrait of a Mameluke, said to be Roustam Raza
Self-Portrait in Rome
The Start of the Race of the Riderless Horses
Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault (1791–1824)- Hunting in the Pontine Marshes
Arab Warrior
The seizure of Abd-el-Kader's camp in 1843
Interior of a Wood at Pierrefitte
Eichenwald
Der Wasserfall der Ilse auf dem Brocken im Harzgebirge
Forest in the Morning Light
Rocks "Panieńskie Skały"
In the Woods
Forest landscape at sunrise
Et skyggefuldt sted i Hestehave ved Frederiksborg
Forest Scene in the Catskills
Rocher couvert de mousses et troncs d'arbres abattus
Lumbering