Imago Belli: Horace Vernet'sL'Atelieras an Image of Radical Militarism under the Restoration

Abstract

Horace Vernet's painting L'Atelier (1821) is examined in the light of the political and social restlessness of the Bourbon Restoration, and of the artist's radical sympathies. It is shown that, apart from being a record of the carefree gatherings for which Vernet's studio was famous in its time, the picture was also a statement of the Bonapartist and militaristic ideals nurtured by the radical factions, ideals shared by Vernet and his friends in the 1820's.