Antoine Blanchard is the pseudonym under which the French painter Marcel Masson (15 November 1910 – 10 August 1988)
[Artnet] painted his immensely popular Parisian street scenes. He was born in a small village near the banks of the
Loire
The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.
It rises in the so ...
.
Education and career
Blanchard received his initial artistic training at the Beaux-Arts in
Rennes
Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...
, Brittany. He then moved to Paris in 1932 where he joined the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Like
Édouard Cortès Édouard is both a French given name and a surname, equivalent to Edward in English. Notable people with the name include:
* Édouard Balladur (born 1929), French politician
* Édouard Boubat (1923–1999), French photographer
* Édouard Colonne ...
(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
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
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.
Many of the French Quarter art galleries of New Orleans handle Antoine Blanchard paintings and prints since this American City has a strong French history. His art is popular in international art auctions and there are many copies. Authentication of an original Blanchard/Masson painting is necessary and the authentic signature carries a secret known by art experts.
On August 10, 1988, Antoine Blanchard died aged 77.
Notes
External links
Antoine Blanchard - Catalogue RaisonnéArtnet
Artworks by Antoine Blanchard
Antoine Blanchard Bio
- Findlay Galleries
Pseudonymous artists
20th-century French painters
20th-century French male artists
French male painters
1910 births
1988 deaths
{{France-painter-20thC-stub