Of poor health since childhood, in 1845 Jérôme Napoléon sought permission to travel to Vernet-les-Bains to drink of its spring water, but the government of King Louis-Philippe I refused to let him enter French territory.
Claude Joseph Vernet | Vernet | Vernet-les-Bains | Horace Vernet |
While making their way to Paris, they are hired to pose for a painter (Fritz Leiber), Vidocq as Saint George and Vernet as the dragon.
In Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", fictional detective Sherlock Holmes claims that his grandmother is Vernet's sister, without stating whether this is Claude Joseph or Antoine Charles Horace's sister.
In Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" Holmes claims to be related to Vernet, stating, "My ancestors were country squires... my grandmother... was the sister of Vernet, the French artist."
Apprenticed to his father, his prints include: Chauville in tragedy of Calas by De Lorme; Venus at Judgement of Paris, by Boucher; the Tranquil Wave by Vernet; Homage to Love by Van Loo; and seven scenes of the Life of St Gregory .
In 1868, whilst Vernet was still alive, the Argentine government had granted Isla de los Estados part of Vernet's original 1828 concession to Luis Piedra Buena.
Asked if he was, indeed, Vernet from Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, he replied "Certainly, but I'm a telegram postman in Grenoble and I have never set foot in the saltpans. I know another Vernet in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont and it's my uncle, a man of fifty years, a cultivater who has never left the land."
His engravings are mostly of landscapes and marine subjects, the best being those after Dietrich and Vernet.