Photograph of a full length portrait of Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet, commonly known as Horace Vernet, seated with his right leg over his left. He faces slightly towards the left and gazes towards the right. He has a long beard and moustache.

Vernet came from a long line of French artists and was a celebrated painter of battles, portraits and Orientalist Arab subjects. He was born in the Louvre apartments during the French Revolution.  Queen Victoria acquired a painting by him as a Christmas gift for Prince Albert called Zouaves at the Malakoff (RCIN 406470), which depicts an important moment in the Siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War of 1855.