Antoine Blanchard
Along the Louvre
c. 1950s

About the Item

Antoine Blanchard (French, 1910-1988) "Along the Louvre" Oil on Canvas Signed Lower Right approx 18 x 22 inches (site) approx. 26.5 x 30 inches (framed) Notes on the Authentication of Antoine Blanchard’s Paintings: The vast majority of Blanchard’s paintings were smaller works, which were sent to the United States in tubes and stretched and framed by the galleries that sold them. Virtually all of these Blanchards were painted in European centimeter sizes, which convert to 13” x 18” or 18” x 21 1/2?, but on very rare occasions he painted much larger works in American sizes – such as 24” x 36” – on commission for dealers such as Howard Morseburg in Los Angeles or the dapper Wally Findlay, who had a chain of galleries. The first way to assess the authenticity of a Blanchard work is the size. The popular forgeries were painted in common American sizes to make framing less expensive as the imported French or Belgian frames that were used then were as expensive as the faked paintings. While Blanchard did paint a few 20” x 24” paintings for Wally Findlay, these are exceedingly rare and will have the Findlay stamp on the reverse. Virtually all of the inauthentic paintings, the forgeries, were painted in the popular 12” x 16,” 16” x 20,” and 20” x 24” American sizes. Once Blanchard’s work was selling briskly through galleries and retailing for several hundred dollars, other painters – who were then getting ten or twenty dollars for their paintings when they sold – took notice and began to imitate his work. These works were painted abroad, purchased by agents and then sent to lesser galleries, furniture stores and frame shops in the United States where they were sold for a fraction of what an authentic Blanchard sold for. Many were imported unsigned and then signed in the United States, sometimes even with a black marking pen. The vast majority of the Blanchard forgeries were done by the same artist or pair of artists and, to the experienced authority, they are as easy to recognize as the real paintings as the colors tend to be overly saturated, the draftsmanship is inferior, with blocky heads on the ever present white horses. They were often framed in knobby, inexpensive Mexican-made frames, often distributed by the old L.A. Frame on West 7th Street in Los Angeles. Thus few people were fooled at the time. These were also painted in standard American sizes, which make them stand out from the real Blanchards. However, now these faux-Blanchards are more than forty years old and have the patina of age to obscure their less-than-immaculate conception. There are now hundreds of these Blanchard copies on the market and the artist’s failure to adopt some form of French trademark for his chosen nom de plume has made life difficult for the less experienced dealer or collector. (Copyright, 2001, 2007, 2012, 2015, Jeffrey Morseburg, not to be reproduced without specific written permission. Jeffrey Morseburg is an appraiser, archivist, researcher and writer. His family began working with Blanchard’s work in the 1960s and, because it was his job to stretch and frame the canvasses as they came in from Europe, he became intimately familiar with the paintings and the artist’s evolution. He authenticates Blanchard’s work today.)

Creator:
Antoine Blanchard (1910-1988, French)
Creation Year:
c. 1950s
Dimensions:
Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)
Medium:
Canvas,Oil
Movement & Style:
Impressionist
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Missouri, MO
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU74733662031
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Antoine Blanchard

Antoine Blanchard was born in France on November 15, 1910, in a small village near the banks of the Loire. He was the eldest of three children, and his father, a carver, managed a small carpentry and furniture shop. Blanchard would watch his father hand carve the furniture, and he began to display an artistic flair early in life — in an effort to promote this talent, his parents sent him to Blois for drawing lessons. He continued his training in Rennes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied sculpture and drawing. Upon completion of his studies, he was awarded the school’s highest award: Le Prix du Ministre.

By 1932 Blanchard left Rennes and traveled to Paris to study. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and after a few years entered the competition for the Prix de Rome. It was in Paris that he developed a love for the city and its street life. In 1939 Blanchard married a young woman he met in Paris, and in September of that year war broke out and he was called up for service. It was not until 1942 that he would return to his art.

Blanchard’s daughter Nicole was born in 1944 — she too would follow in the family tradition and after the birth of her two daughters, she became an artist working under the name A. Champeau. It was also around this time that Blanchard's father passed away, and he was compelled to return to his hometown and run the family business — giving him little time to paint.

The artist’s second daughter, Evelyn, was born in 1947, and by 1948, he had given control of the family business to his younger brother and returned to Paris to paint. Contemporary life in Paris had changed, and Blanchard longed for the bygone days. He began to research the Belle Époque period in Paris — reading and studying all the material on the period he could find.

Many of the subjects and scenes Blanchard portrayed were taken from images he collected of Paris during the 1890s, and he would often work on paintings for days or months before he finally felt they were complete. A.P. Larde comments in his book Antoine Blanchard, His Life His Work that he had always spent much time on his work — this explains why his production has always been rather limited, unlike the hurried and multiple proliferations of some modern artists. Delicate touches of luminous and shimmering tones produce a marvelous impression of harmony, brightness and light. Alternate shadings and lights, sensitive and mellow blending allow the artist to attain a hardly-ever reached degree of grace, of radiant and glimmering freshness.

Larde writes that Blanchard’s works are, first of all, a marvelous invitation to an ideal walk through old Paris, so different from that of today. Although a large number of historical monuments remain, today's Paris has little in common with Paris at the turn of the century; the scenery may be almost the same, but daily life as its characters has totally changed; the customs have been entirely transformed. In his landscape paintings, Blanchard invites us to relive this period by showing us pleasant strolls along embankments, squares and boulevards at a period in Parisian life when time did not count, when one had all one's time to idle, to stroll along the streets, to window-shop, to walk quietly along the boulevards or spend the afternoon in a sidewalk café.

Like his contemporary, Édouard Cortès, Blanchard devoted his artistic career to the depiction of Paris through all its daily and seasonal changes. But he was not an imitator of Cortès, but rather depicted the life of Paris at the turn of the century from his own point of view and with his own unique style. Blanchard always used small strokes, with a delicate, enveloping and mellow treatment; the slight haziness, which is a characteristic of his work, in many ways recalls the great masters of the Impressionist period.

Whether it was l'Arc de Triomphe, la Madeleine, Café de la Paix, Notre Dame or the dozens of other historical monuments and buildings of Paris, Blanchard’s focus was on the daily life of Paris at the turn of the century. His work became highly sought after, and collectors from around the world vied to acquire his new works. Today he is considered one of the leading exponents of the School of Paris painters.

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(Biography provided by Lincoln Glenn)