Portrait of a man with a tarbouche

Description of the artwork

Our portrait was certainly painted in the first half of the 1830s or early 1840s. Is it one of the paintings of a Moor's head that Felix Mendelssohn had the pleasure of contemplating in the painter's studio in Rome in 1831, or is it a portrait made during Horace Vernet's first trips to North Africa? Is it a model he met in Paris, such as Joseph whom Théodore Géricault represented in several of his paintings? Or is it the "Chasseur d'Afrique" who came to pose in Vernet's studio for the Smala and who obtained, thanks to the painter, the cross for his glorious feats of arms? 

Depicted in a three-quarter view and wearing a red felt hat that the Algerians call tarbouche, the model is draped in a blue cloth that reveals a bare shoulder. The man stands out against a neutral background whose yellow ochre tones perfectly reveal the richness of his complexion and his determined gaze.

Origin

Former collection of the Duke of Treviso