The recently published Correspondance of Horace Vernet, director of the Académie de France à Rome (1829-1834), offers new material concerning the education of Prix de Rome-winners during the reign of Louis-Philippe. Horace Vernet’s particular personality and his view of the goals of artists’ training in Rome led his directorship to be one rich in experiments and debates. The article deals with the conditions of training at the academy at the time and shows how Vernet tried to infuse the pensionnaires with the desire to study, to travel, and to develop a certain independence of spirit and style. He nonetheless had to compromise with the role the Académie des beaux-arts intended to play. His directorship is characterized by the strained relationships with the latter, divergences of opinion regarding the application of the regulations, and his personal contribution to the reform project of the institutions controlled by the Academy in Paris.