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Jacques-Emile Blanche
John Singer Sargent American
Not on view
Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861–1942), a French-born painter of landscapes and portraits, developed a style that blended aspects of the work of Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas with that of the English artist Thomas Gainsborough. Blanche was a cosmopolitan figure, at home in France and England, and he enjoyed the celebrity that accompanied society portraiture. Blanche and Sargent had a number of mutual friends in the Parisian art world.
This informal sketch was created in the garden of Blanche’s house in Auteuil, near Paris. The fluidly executed figure is set against a roughly painted decorative background—possibly a tree trunk surrounded by flowers and foliage. Sargent gave careful attention to Blanche’s firmly modeled head and attenuated fingers. Blanche later reported that Sargent presented him with this portrait in exchange for some Louis XV style furniture.
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