Venus and the Three Graces Surprised by a Mortal

Jacques Blanchard, who unfortunately died young, developed the sensuous richness of the Venetian masters with a great deal of seductive talent. His qualities made him a remarkable and highly appreciated painter of female nudes.

In the present painting the artist’s model is evidently Rubens, whose late nudes he must have known. Blanchard was not a mere eclectic, for out of his borrowings he composed a style of his own which makes him one of the most attractive painters of his generation.