Vernet is best known as an accomplished history painter, but like many academic artists of his day, including his teacher François -André Vincent, he also made caricatures. Among these were numerous drawings of friends and acquaintances as well as sketches of fellow Academicians during the meetings of the Institut de France. This wonderful wsh drawing most likely depicts the Romantic composer Charles-Henri Plantade. A lightly traced inscription in graphite at the bottom left appears to read "Plantade,"and the image resembles a more serious profile-portrait of Plantade, who clearly had a prominent nose, which Vernet increased considerably in size. It is a good-natured caricature that Vernet signed with a characteristic flourish at the bottom.