(BORDEAUX 1758 - Paris 1836)
PHASES OF A POLACRA'S ENTRY INTO PORT, c. 1830
Pen with brown ink, over traces in black chalk.
Inscribed in pen Polacra che entrando in un porto con un vento fresco, comincia a piegare la sua vela grande. 139 x 210 mm.
The Polacra, or Polacca is a vessel used in the Mediterranean between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The drawing belonged to an album of Vernet's sketches, of various kinds, some of which were signed and dated 1830.
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.