Jacques-Émile Blanche

Apart from some artistic instruction from Henri Gervex (1852-1929) and Ferdinand Humbert (1842-1934), Blanche was self-taught. The grandson of Esprit (1796-1852) and son of Émile Blanche (1828-93), both famous nineteenth-century alienists, Jacques-Émile often portrayed his father's patients, generally members of the social or cultural elite, and was influenced by the fashionable portraits by such artists as Tissot (q.v.) and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Blanche first visited London as a child during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and then returned in 1884. He continued to travel to...