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Lot Essay
The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by Mrs Jane Roberts
This very early portrait was painted while Blanche was studying with the fashionable portrait painter Henri Gervex (1852-1929) in the early 1880s. In the Gervex studio, Blanche occasionally worked with his friend, the painter Ary Renan (1858-1900), son of the writer Ernest Renan, to whom this painting is dedicated.
The reverse of this painting is intriguing mainly because the second dedication is the first mention of his artist friend William Rothenstein (1872-1945) whom, until now, it had always been supposed that he had met a little later in Dieppe through his other lifelong friend Walter Sickert.
This very early portrait was painted while Blanche was studying with the fashionable portrait painter Henri Gervex (1852-1929) in the early 1880s. In the Gervex studio, Blanche occasionally worked with his friend, the painter Ary Renan (1858-1900), son of the writer Ernest Renan, to whom this painting is dedicated.
The reverse of this painting is intriguing mainly because the second dedication is the first mention of his artist friend William Rothenstein (1872-1945) whom, until now, it had always been supposed that he had met a little later in Dieppe through his other lifelong friend Walter Sickert.