Jacques-Émile Blanche | Debussy, Degas, Proust, Stravinsky, Frits Thaulow etc.. | Masterpiece

Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942) was a French artist, largely self-taught, who became a successful portrait painter, working in London and Paris.

Although Blanche received some instruction in painting from Henri Gervex, he may be regarded as self-taught.

He became a very successful portrait painter, with a style derived from 18th-century English painters such as Thomas Gainsborough as well as Édouard Manet and John Singer Sargent.

Jacques-Émile Blanche | Vaslav Nijinsky in 'Danse Siamoise' | Christie's

He worked in London, where he spent time from 1870 on, as well as Paris, where he exhibited at the Salon and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

One of his closest friends was Marcel Proust, who helped edit several of Blanche's publications.

He also knew Henry James and is mentioned in Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

In 1902, Jacques-Émile Blanche took over the direction of the Académie de La Palette, where he would remain director until 1911.

He taught at the Académie Vitti in 1903.

Jacques-Émile Blanche | Portrait of Degas, 1903

Among the painter's most famous works are portraits of his father, 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 whom his father had treated for mental illness.

Others he painted included James Joyce, Julia Stephen, Edgar Degas, Claude Debussy, Auguste Rodin, Colette, Thomas Hardy, John Singer Sargent, Charles Conder, Percy Grainger, and Tamara Karsavina as Stravinsky's Firebird. | Source: © Wikipedia

Jacques-Émile Blanche | Portrait of Claude Debussy, 1902

Jacques-Émile Blanche | Portrait of Charles Conder, 1904

Jacques-Émile Blanche (Parigi, 31 gennaio 1861 - Offranville, 30 settembre 1942) è stato un pittore e scrittore Francese, famoso soprattutto come ritrattista.

Formatosi in un ambiente impressionista, dopo aver ricevuto i primi rudimenti artistici da Henri Gervex, la sua arte complessivamente derivò da un insieme di influenze francesi ed inglesi.

Si avvicinò a Manet per riprenderne i grigi e le luminosità e si mise in evidenza al Salon del 1896 con la Famiglia Thaulow.

Nella fase seguente della carriera limitò la spontaneità impressionista per dedicarsi ad una tecnica personale, pseudo-puntinista, di grande effetto, che utilizzò soprattutto nel ritratto di singola figura. Espanse anche la gamma delle tonalità calde come mostrò nel ritratto di Paul Adam.

Con il dipinto Salone rosa interpretò il tipico gusto di fine secolo, sia per il soggetto sia per la fluidità del tocco.

Jacques-Émile Blanche | The painter Johan Frederik Frits Thaulow and his family | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Grande amico di James Abbott McNeill Whistler e anche di Oscar Wilde anche se in seguito, per via del processo di sodomia a cui fu sottoposto, lo evitò.

Proust a lui dedicò la prefazione della sua opera "Propos de peintre".