e was reckoned very beautiful by all his friends, and
especially by his father. He was a model, in fact, and as he grew up, he
showed that he had inherited the artist-genius of his father, and added
to it a wit peculiarly his own. His sallies were often exceedingly
amusing to the people in whose company he chiefly spent his time. He
entered college, and as soon as he had quitted it he was already
distinguished as an artist. Instead of going back to ancient times, he
painted his own age. He was enthusiastic in all his efforts, and
catching the spirit of the times, grew rapidly popular. He did not live
in the past, but in the living present, and endeavored to glorify the
men, deeds, and places of to-day.

The figure of Vernet was small, his face was fine-looking, his hand
white, and his foot very small. He went to masked balls and arrayed
himself as a woman, and was constantly importuned by suitors. On one
occasion a marshal of France was so pressing in his suit, that he put
himself under the care of his wife, who took the supposed lady home with
her in the family carriage!

From 1811 to 1815 Vernet appeared at court and was quite popular. He
painted portraits of the different members of the royal family. He was
so celebrated for his drawings, that the editors disputed for them, and
paid him the highest prices. In 1814 he was decorated with the cross of
the Legion of Honor. At the restoration, he for a time was under a
cloud. He was not idle, but such were his subjects that he was shut out
of the Louvre. He, however, executed many paintings, which subsequently
became celebrated. Disgusted with the treatment he received, he
journeyed with his father into Italy.

The Louvre continued shut against Vernet's pictures, but the peers took
up his cause with great unanimity and enthusiasm. A list of his best
pictures was published and warmly eulogized, and as they could be seen
at his studio, the crowd of artists and critics, and others, wended
their way thither. The painter was recompensed. In the midst of this
crowd, and the confusion necessarily consequent upon their visit, Horace
Vernet went on quietly in his work, in their presence, and executed that
series of grand paintings, which in after years brought him so wide a
renown. The duke of Orleans was his warm friend. He bought many pictures
of him, and ordered himself painted in every style. Charles X. grew
jealous, and concluded it wise to withdraw his persecution of the