Portrait de Léon Pissard 1920

Jacques-Émile Blanche made this portrait of Léon Pissard with what looks like a fair amount of umber, ochre, and veridian, spread kind of thinly. It’s not a flashy painting, but it’s got that direct gaze. I imagine the painting emerged gradually, in layers. Did Blanche start with the eyes, or did he block in the shapes first? Maybe he worked on it over several sittings, letting the paint dry in between. See how the dark coat seems to dissolve into the background? That blending has been achieved with some fairly loose brushwork. I wonder if the way that the composition leads you to the face first suggests the artist’s relationship to the sitter. Blanche has used painting to open a site of inquiry – not just about the man in the painting, but also about how we look at each other, and what it means to truly see someone. Maybe that’s what all portraiture is, an ongoing conversation between artists and their subjects, each inspiring the other's creativity.