Jacques-Émile Blanche

Rafel Errasuriz Edwards
Sale: Christie's, New York, May 6, 1998, lot 158, illustrated
Private Collector, Connecticut (acquired at the above sale)

Santiago, Chile, Instituto Cultural de las Condes
Ozaka, Daimura Museum; Tokyo, Daimura Museum; Kitakyushu, Municipal Museum of Art, Woman of Fashion: French and American Images of Leisure 1880-1920, 1994, no. 25

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This pastel is in beautiful state and should remain behind glass at all times. There do not appear to be any damages and we recommend that the picture be hung in its current frame as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Madame Eugenia Errazuriz née Eufenia Huic (1858-1951) was born into a wealthy silver-mining family in Chile and, after a strict convent education, married painter José Tomás Errazuriz in 1880.  José was the brother of Ramon Subercaseaux who was the Chilean consul to Paris and whose wife was painted by John Singer Sargent.  While on their honeymoon in Venice, the newlywed Errazurizs were introduced to Sargent who was sharing a studio with José Errazuriz's brother Tomas in Ca'Rezzonico. The couple then settled in Paris where they frequented the American heiress Winnareta Singer's Salon and met many artists, musicians and writers including Gabriel Fauré, Jacques Emile Blanche, Ernest Duez, Paul César Helleu and, of course, the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini who would paint a memorable portrait of Eugenia. Apart from the numerous portraits and oil sketches that Sargent made of her, she also sat for Paul César Helleu, Augustus John and more surprisingly, Pablo Picasso. This was because she met Diaghilev through Blanche and Cocteau and was persuaded to finance early productions of the Ballets Russes with her friend Winnareta Singer and through this involvement, became interested in the Paris Avant-Garde. In later years, the couple moved to London where she and her husband would eventually divorce.

In what could have been a rather conventional society portrait, Blanche instead chooses to portray his subject from an unusual vantage point, giving the work an immediacy and movement more akin to photography. If one compares it to the other formal portraits of his contemporaries, Blanche's portrait is by far the most unconventional.