Portrait équestre du Colonel Clary

Equestrian Portrait of Colonel Clary from 1815 at the Musee Massey shows a Napoleonic officer on horseback. Vernet's equestrian portraits combine portrait likeness with his mastery of horse anatomy and military costume. Horace Vernet's fluent oil technique allowed rapid execution of large-scale battle scenes and Orientalist compositions with a journalistic immediacy that his contemporaries found both exciting and, to some academic critics, superficial.

The equestrian portrait presents the colonel with military authority. Vernet's handling of horse and rider demonstrates his command of the equestrian portrait genre.