JACQUES EMILE

BLANCHE (1861– )  , French painter, was born in Paris . He enjoyed an excellent cosmopolitan education, and was brought up at Passy in a house once belonging to the princesse de Lamballe, which still retained the atmosphere of 18th-century elegance and refinement and influenced his taste and work . Although he received some instruction in painting from Gervex, he may be regarded as self-taught . He acquired a great reputation as a portrait painter; his art is derived from French and English sources, refined, sometimes super-elegant, but. full of character . Among his chief works are his portraits of his father, of Pierre Louys, the Thaulow family, Aubrey Beardsley and Yvette Guilbert .