Jacques-Emile Blanche

Eric Caudron, Paris (acquired on 15 June 2007)

Private Collection, New York (acquired by 2012)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Jane Roberts, Jacques-Émile Blanche, Paris 2012, p. 129, illustrated in color (as Le Salon de musique au Manoir du Tot, Offranville)

Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Derniers impressionnistes, le temps de l'intimité, exh. cat., Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau 2018, p. 144, illustrated in color

Jacques-Émile Blanche had a deep connection to Normandy dating back to his early childhood. He spent summers in his family’s chalet in Dieppe, receiving guests including Edgar Degas, Henri Gervex, and Paul César Helleu. In 1902, he and his wife, Rose Lemoinne, began renting the Manoir du Tot in Offranville – a large house with 18th century fireplaces and paneled walls that matched Blanche’s Louis XVI furniture and British-influenced sofas and chairs with flowery patterns. By 1904, the couple made Offranville their permanent home.

A lifelong musician and music lover, the music room was one of Blanche’s favorite rooms in the house. He painted multiple interior scenes depicting the music room, including one featuring a young Jean Cocteau with Hilda Trevelyan in 1912, as well as two other views from circa 1910: one larger than the present work, from a different angle, and another, smaller, showing just the chintz-covered chair. Like Degas, Blanche used reflections in mirrors to expand the spatial dimension of composition and imbue them with mystery. In the present work, Blanche has depicted himself reflected in a mirror on the right side of the composition, providing an additional layer of depth and meaning to the scene.