Jacques-Emile Blanche
1861-1942
He received some instruction in painting from Henri Gervex and Fantan Latour, but was mostly self-taught. He became a very successful portrait painter, with a style inspired by 18th-century English painters such as Thomas Gainsborough, as well as Édouard Manet and John Singer Sargent. He was also successful as a painter of still lifes and landscapes.
He often worked in London, where he spent time from 1870, as well as Paris, where he exhibited at the Salon from 1882 to 1889 and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1890. In 1902 he took over the direction of the Académie de La Palette, where he would remain director until 1911.
Blanche's many portraits are evidence not only of his talent but also of the range of his social connections. Among the painter's most famous works are portraits of Marcel Proust (private collection, Paris), the poet Pierre Louÿs, the Thaulow family (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), Aubrey Beardsley (National Portrait Gallery, London), and Yvette Guilbert and the infamous beauty Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione.
This beautiful painting is included in Jane Roberts' catalogue raisonné (No. 1307) and is circa. 1910.
Museums:
Musèe Jacques-Emile Blache, Offranville.
Château musèe, Dieppe
Musèe du Dijon.
Musèe des Beaux-Arts, Lyon.
Musèe des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris.
Musèe du Arts Moderne, Paris.
Musèe d'Orsay, Paris.
Musee Rodin, Paris.
Bibliotèque nationale de France, Paris.
Musèe des Beaux-Artes, Mulhouse.
Musèe des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.
Musèe national du château, Versailles.
Musèe du Bruxelles.
Museum of Fine Arts, Strasbourg.
Tate Gallery, London.
National Portrait Gallery, London.
The Cleveland Museum of Art.
The Chicago Institute of Art.
North Carolina Museum of Art.
Providence Museum of Art, Rhode Island.
Stanford University Art Gallery.