This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Portraiture

Prince Albert was an early adopter of portrait photography

UNKNOWN PERSON

Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet (1789-1863)

1860

Albumen print | 22.8 x 17.5 cm (page dimensions) | RCIN 2913522

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.
  • Creator(s)

    Unknown Person (photographer)

    Subject(s)

    Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet (1789-1863)
  • annotation: Horace Vernet. 1860. [beneath work]

  • 22.8 x 17.5 cm (page dimensions)

    9.6 x 6.3 cm (mount)

    8.7 x 5.3 cm (image)

  • Horace Vernet, 1860 [in Photographs. Artists' Portraits. Volume 79]

  • Acquried by Prince Albert

  • Subject(s)
    • People
      • Artists
    Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • albums
          • photograph albums
        • photographs
          • cartes-de-visite