Carle Vernet was a French painter and lithographer, renowned in his time for capturing horses in full movement—racing, hunting, and cavalry portraits—and he was also an avid horseman. He received artistic training from his father, Claude-Joseph Vernet.
Carle won the Prix de Rome in 1782 and was awarded the Legion of Honor by Napoleon in 1808 for a battle scene. Although his sister was guillotined for hiding letters to aristocrats, Vernet’s work largely avoided tragedy and focused on acute observations of daily life, especially after 1816, when he produced engravings of street vendors, horse markets, and dandies.