19th Century French Academic Nude - Oil on Canvas - P2599

The  back of the canvas bears the stamp of the legendary Parisian firm of art suppliers of the 19th and 20th Century, Blanchet. If you were serious, they were who you bought from. We have no signature, but the artist is very gifted and the painting is in the tradition of life studies of the human firgure that underpinned the work of all the artists of the period, from Corot and Courbet to Manet and Monet and ending with the Blanchets last clients, Picasso and Matisse. A work of high quality in good condition, unframed. Measures 16" x 30" x 1".

Emile Blanchet (1852-1931) traded at 32 rue Bonaparte until moving to 20 rue St-Benoit by 1888. He was born at Nantes.  In 1889 he was offering ‘couleurs extra-fines pour l’huile, l’aquarelle, etc, toiles à tableaux, chevalets, bottes d’artistes, brosses et pinceaux, huile grasse et bleu de lumière’ (Annuaire-Almanach du commerce…Didot-Bottin, 1889). He advertised in the 1896 Salon catalogue as ‘maison de la palette d’or’, founded in 1800, offering ‘Toiles a Tableaux de toutes largeurs, couleur extra fines’, with a factory and workshops at Vaugirard (Catalogue illustré du Salon, 1896). The business apparently continued in one form or another until about 1965.