19th and 20th century European and British Paintings

Jacques Emile Blanche was born at Paris, 1 November 1861.

A pupil of the painters Fantin-Latour, Henri Gervex and Humbert, Blanche exhibited in the foundation year of the Nationale des Beaux-Arts and thence forward throughout his life.

Blanche was immensely successful and admired during his life and painted portraits, still lifes and landscapes. In fact Blanche was so successful that he also exhibited regularly in London as well as in Paris. His portraits were of the rich, elegant and famous figures of the day, which assured him of patronage throughout his life.

Blanche was also a writer and art critic and he was able to mix effortlessly with the academics, writers, artists, from the vehement Surrealists to the most Academic historians. His portraits in the early part of the 20th Century reflect his friendships, Andre Gide 1912, Jean Cocteau 1912, Max Jacob 1912 and many more. As a seventy-year-old he was still painting and exhibiting portraits, notably, James Joyce, Walter Richard Sickert and Maurice Maeterlinck.

During the First World War Blanche devoted himself to painting a vast composition entitled Hommage aux morts de la guerre which, he donated to the Church of Offranville near Dieppe.

Blanche's elegant style, passion for his work is distinctive and unique.