Blanchet, Thomas

, a painter, born at Paris in 1617, the disciple and friend of Poussin and Albano, was appointed professor of painting by the academy of Paris, though absent, and therefore contrary to established custom; but Blanchet was accounted deserving of this departure from the rules. Le Brun presented his picture for reception, representing Cadmus killing a dragon. He spent a part of his life at Lyons, and there died in 1689. A ceiling at the town-house of that place, in which Blanchet displayed the whole force of his talents, was burnt by fire in 1674, and the rest of his works perished in the revolutionary destruction to which that city was doomed in 1793. This painter excelled in history and portraits. His touches are bold, agreeable, and easy, his drawing correct, and his colouring excellent. Several of his pictures were formerly at Paris. ²