Studio: international art (30.1904)

J. E. Blanche

mode of painting to see how Jacques Blanche painter—one who had none of the qualities of the
differs from them in point of execution. great educators, such as Moreau, for instance, who,

In justice to those who, never having under- while respecting the artist's personality, knew how
stood the artist, still show some hesitancy in the to "put him in the proper way"; or such as Roll,
presence of his works, it should be remarked that to whose instruction we are indebted for many fine
Blanche, at the outset, was particularly uncertain. painters to-day. Feeling that he would gain little
Few there are among the men of his time, which or nothing from the instruction of M. Gervex, the
includes Cottet, and Simon, and Menard—in truth artist set out on his way alone, paying assiduous
a fine generation of painters !—who have had to attention to the masters, as did Degas and Manet,
seek their way so long and so patiently. Blanche, and, later still, Whistler and Fantin-Latour.
indeed, appeared before them in the Exhibitions, Under diverse influences such as these was made
and instead of awaiting the hour of maturity, sub- manifest the first period of his activity, which
mitted his earliest attempts to the public. Hence brings him to 1887, during which period he was a
the error of those—and they are many — who frequent exhibitor at the Salon and at the pastel-
imagine the painter much older than he really is, lists' shows. In 1890 he left the old Salon to go to
and find some difficulty in admitting that his that of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, where
efforts have been continued right up to recent he exhibited portraits of Doctor Blanche, Vincent
years. d'Indy, Mile.Jeanne Dumas, The Comte de Lindemann,

Jacques Emile Blanche was born in Paris in 1861. and a young girl on a pony in a landscape scene.
His father and grandfather were doctors of distinc- After this series of works, Blanche seems to have
tion. He was brought up in the celebrated house realised the fact that he was not sufficiently ac-
at Passy which once belonged to the Princesse de quainted with certain of the old masters. For that
Lamballe, the unhappy victim of the Revolution— reason he journeyed to Spain, where he admired
a unique setting for the marvels of late eighteenth- the strength of the native artists, their command
century art, which from his earliest years the boy of form, their powerful realism. Somewhat under
saw constantly around him. There he
acquired a taste which never left him : a
love of the French masters. The most illus-
trious men of the two preceding generations
had visited the house : painters like. Dela-
croix, Corot, Millet, Francois, Manet,
Chenavard; actors such as Talma; musicians
like Berlioz; writers like Balzac, Renan,
Michelet, Renouvier. Thus he grew up in a
rare atmosphere of intellectual culture, with
the lessons of the past on the one hand," and
the counsels of the present on the other;
thus he was enabled to acquire the best
possible acquaintance with all subjects.

Whatever career the young man might
choose, one could be sure he would approach
it with an equipment of fullest general
instruction. Jacques Blanche became a
painter, and while, speaking generally, his
intelligence shaped itself under the influence
of these great minds, he knew no master, so
far as actual painting is concerned. Was
that for good — or for ill? I cannot say. In
any case it was the cause of his long seeking,
since, not having had the strict training one
had thirty years ago, he had slowly to
administer himself his own training. Quite
early he was put under the charge of M.
Gervex, a delightful man, but not much of a " la petite langenegger" by j. e. blanche

192