French · Academic art · Belle Époque
Émile Vernon
b. 14 March 1872, Blois, France — d. c. 1919–20, Blois, France
Émile Vernon (1872–c. 1920) was a French painter from Blois, a pupil of Bouguereau, who exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1898 to about 1913 and is known for luminous portraits of young women and children among flowers.
1 work in the collection
Works by Émile Vernon
Émile Vernon, sometimes listed as Paul Émile Vernon, was a French painter of the Belle Époque, born in Blois in the Loire Valley in 1872. He specialized in portraits and genre pictures of young women and children, often in gardens or surrounded by flowers, painted with a soft, sunlit touch. His works rarely appear in museums but are popular at auction, and they have found a large new audience online.
Life in brief
Vernon studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tours, where he won a first prize for drawing in 1888, and then in Paris, where his teachers included William-Adolphe Bouguereau. From 1898 he showed regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français, presenting portraits, landscapes and flower pieces, until about 1913. He also painted decorative murals, including work for the theater at Châtellerault in 1899, and was admired for his watercolors. Sources disagree on the date of his death, which is given as 1919 or 1920, in Blois.
Style
Vernon took from Bouguereau the smooth modeling of faces and a sweet, idealized type of feminine beauty, but his handling is looser and brighter. Backgrounds of foliage and blossoms are often painted with quick, broken strokes close to Impressionism, while the faces remain carefully finished. The effect is of a polished portrait set in a fresh, sunny garden.
Starlight
In Starlight a young woman is shown in the soft, decorative manner of his Salon portraits, an image of youthful beauty in the tradition of his teacher. Pictures like this were made for private buyers rather than for official commissions, and their dates and owners are often unrecorded.
Where to see his work
Vernon's paintings are mostly in private collections and appear regularly at auction. For related work, see Bouguereau's The Birth of Venus and the collections Academic Art and Famous Paintings of Women.
Questions & answers
Who was Émile Vernon?
Émile Vernon (1872–c. 1920) was a French painter from Blois who studied in Tours and Paris, partly under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1898 to about 1913, mainly portraits of women and children.
Was Émile Vernon a student of Bouguereau?
Yes. After training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tours, Vernon studied in Paris with teachers including William-Adolphe Bouguereau, whose idealized faces influenced his portraits, though Vernon's backgrounds are looser and brighter.
Where are Émile Vernon's paintings?
Most of Vernon's paintings are in private collections and are sold regularly at auction. Few are on permanent public display.