Charles Blanc (17 November 1813, Castres (Tarn) – 17 January 1882,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a French art critic.

Life and career

He was the younger brother of the French socialist politician and historian Louis Blanc. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

of 1848, he was director of the Department for the Visual Arts at the Ministry of the Interior. As director of the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

he reinstituted a program of copying from casts after the antique and commissioned a series of copies of

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

for a projected "Musée des copies" that was objected to by the school's overseers, who cashiered Blanc. He published the ''Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles'' (Par. 1849–69, 14 vols.), which was translated into English and German. In his book, ''Chromophobia'', David Batchelor argues that Charles Blanc thought of color in art as something not to be totally relied upon. With regard to painting, Blanc says that while color is essential, its place is delegated behind the formal characteristics of composition, chiaroscuro and drawing.Batchelor, David (2000). ''Chromophobia'', pp.23-25. Blanc is the namesake of the Charles-Blanc Prize.

Works

* * ''Le trésor de la curiosité'' (1857–1858, 2 vols.) * ''L'œuvre complet de Rembrandt'' (4. Aufl. 1873, 2 vols.) * ''Grammaire des arts du dessin'' (1867, 3. Ed. 1876) * ''Ingres, sa vie et ses ouvrages'' (1870) * ''L'art dans la parure et dans le vêtement'' (1875) * ''Les artistes de mon temps'' (1876) * ''Voyage de la Haute-Égypte, observations sur les arts égyptien et arabe'' (1876)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanc, Charles 1813 births 1882 deaths People from Castres French art critics 19th-century French journalists French male journalists French male writers 19th-century French male writers Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the Académie Française Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery