artist. He ordered a portrait of himself, and the Louvre was open to
him.

He now wrought a revolution in the art of painting in Paris, and
established a new school. It was his desire to triumph over David, and
he boasted that he would do so. The public pronounced him the first
painter of the age. Some of his best pictures at this time were painted
at Rome. Upon his return he found his old friend king, under the title
of Louis Philippe. He was, of course, a favorite at court. The king gave
him the use of a studio at Versailles, of a magnificent description, in
which he wrought at great national pictures. He was an indefatigable
worker. He never hesitated to make the longest journey to study the
scene of his pictures. He traveled up and down the Mediterranean,
visited Arabia, Africa, and other distant spots, lived in tents, put up
with privation and suffering, that he might paint from nature. His
memory was so excellent that having once looked upon a spot, nothing was
afterward forgotten; every characteristic of the place was sure to
reappear upon the canvas. The least detail of position or gesture, he
remembered for years with ease. Indeed, his faculty for daguerreotyping
such things upon his mind, was wonderful. He met his friend, the marquis
de Pastorel, one day, who said:

"How are you, Horace; where have you kept yourself for these two years?
I have not met you for years."

"You are mistaken," replied the artist; "I met you six months since in
the garden of the Tuileries."

"You are dreaming," said the marquis.

"No," said Vernet, "a lady was with you--wait a moment and I will sketch
her face."

He drew a few hasty lines upon a bit of paper, and lo! the marquis
beheld the face of an intimate lady friend of his, and at the same
instant remembered that he had escorted her across the Tuileries gardens
six months before.

"It is well for you that you live _now_" said the marquis, "for two
centuries earlier they would have burned you for a sorcerer."

Horace Vernet has been a great student of the scriptures, and he
maintains that in painting historical scenes from the bible, the
costumes should be such as the Arabians use at this time, and in his
scripture paintings he has followed out this plan.

In 1834 and 1835 he was principally on the coast of Africa, engaged in
painting. But he returned to his studio at Versailles, and in 1836
produced several grand battle-pictures. The king desired that he should
fill