ANTOINE BLANCHARD
“Porte St Denis, Paris”
A very high quality oil on canvas painting by Antoine Blanchard (1910-1988) of Porte St Denis, Paris. This is a fine example of the work and subject matter that this artist is most famous for.
Works by this artist often sell for very high prices at auction. Some examples are included at the end of the photos.
Frame: Presented in a decorative wooden frame.
Signature: Lower right.
Provenance: Christie’s, May 17 2016, Lot #95. Auction photography label dated 2015
Condition: Painting and frame are both in very good condition.
Measurements: Painting measures 44 x 32cm and the overall frame 62 x 50cm.
Biography: Antoine Blanchard (1910-1988) received his initial artistic training at the Beaux-Arts in Rennes, Brittany. He then moved to Paris in 1932 where he joined the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the Prix de Rome.
Like Édouard Cortès (1882–1969) and Eugène Galien-Laloue (1854–1941), Antoine Blanchard essentially painted Paris and the Parisians in bygone days, often from vintage postcards. The artist began painting his Paris street scenes in the late 1950s, and like Cortès, often painted the same Paris landmark many times, in different weather conditions or various seasons. The most recurrent topics were views of the capital city in cloudy or rainy days, showing streets busy with pedestrians in a rush to go home, and bright storefronts reflecting on wet streets.
Antoine Blanchard died in 1988.