Jacques Blanchard
(1600 - 1638) |
|
Classical Subjects, Secular Narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Jacques Blanchard |
| Gender: |
Unknown |
| Place of Birth: |
Paris, France |
| Nationality: |
|
| Birth: |
1600 |
| Death: |
1638 |
| Website: |
|
| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
|
|
Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Classical Subjects, Secular Narratives |
| Medium: |
|
| Method: |
Oil |
| Style: |
|
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
|
|
|
Biography
| Grouped among the minor masters of the first half of the seventeenth century in France, Blanchard is, in fact, an original talent whose sensuous and delicate interpretations of classical subjects are notable for their personal adaptation of Venetian styles and for their anticipation of rococo. Trained first in the late mannerist tradition by his uncle, Nicolas Bollery, in Paris, Blanchard worked in Lyons with Horace Le Blanc from 1620 to 1623. Blanchard traveled to Rome in 1624, where he remained for a year and a half. In 1626 he moved to Venice, living there for two years and concentrating on the works of Veronese, but also looking seriously at Fetti and Liss. We know that he owned Liss's Flute Player. Blanchard returned to Paris in 1628, where his earliest dated work, the Virgin and Child Giving the Keys to St. Peter (signed and dated 1628, Albi Cathedral), reveals that his style had by then been formed. His approach figures set in the foreground, a frieze-like space behind, warm diagonal lighting, and sensuous figures (with a distinct Flemish flavor in the handling of their flesh and a treatment of fabrics was reutilized in a number of canvases. His Italian influences earned him the nickname of the French Titian. His sources, however, were diverse and included the Fontainebleau mannerists, Paul Bril, Rubens, and so on. These were, nevertheless, absorbed into his own inimitable manner, and had Blanchard lived longer (he died at age thirtyeight), his impact on the direction of French painting might have been greater. His specialties included moderately sized canvases depicting subjects such as charity (a theme he explored at least six times). All of his dated pictures were done after his return to Paris in 1628. In his best works there is a mingling of intimacy, sweetness, sensuality with fantasy, and dreamy melancholy which must have had a great appeal in his own time, and which certainly was an influence on the early eighteenth century. |
Samples of Work
|
|
