LOUIS GABRIEL BLANCHET (Versailles, 1701 - Rome 1772) Portrait of a Lady with Dog Portrait of a gentleman with letter Signed and dated: L G Blanchet, pinxit Rome 1755 Oil on canvas, 75.5X71.5 cm (2) Provenance: Rapallo, Galleria Giosi auction, Castello di San Michele di Pagana, 26 September-2 October 1964, lot 25 Genoa, private collection Louis-Gabriel Blanchet's production reveals an elegant and refined style, a skilful blend of French and exquisitely cosmopolitan taste in vogue in Rome during the 18th century. As we know, the artist won the Grand Prix in 1727 with Pierre Subleyras and the following year, the two were appointed 'boarders' of the French Academy. Leaving the famous institution in the mid 1730s, Blanchet and Subleyras rented a flat in the parish of San Salvatore ai Monti and Blanchet helped his friend in the production of Supper at Simon's House (1737, Paris, Musée du Louvre); and the famous Portrait of Giovanni Paolo Panini dates back to 1736, a work that manifests the artist's talent, capable of expressing a peculiar naturalism and spontaneous elegance, employing a luminous and brilliant palette, capable of skilfully depicting both the clothes and the expressive vivacity of the subjects, capturing their intimacy and psychological introspection. These aspects can be clearly observed in the canvases under examination, the quality of which lives up to the fame he achieved during his maturity, when his atelier was the privileged destination of intellectuals, nobles and artists from all over Europe. In contrast to Pompeo Batoni, who specialised in producing large format paintings, with the figures silhouetted against backgrounds depicting classical ruins, Blanchet's portraits express a more intimate and introspective dimension, in which the nobility of the subjects is evoked by their poses and attitudes. Bibliography of reference G. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura Romana della Fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, ad vocem M. Olivier, Un pittore francese a Roma, Louis-Gabriel Blanchet, in Strenna dei Romanisti, 57.1996, pp. 467-486 E. P. Bowron in Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia and Houston 2000, ad vocem A. di Croce, in Il Settecento a Roma, exhibition catalogue edited by Anna Lo Bianco and Angela Negro, Milan 2005, pp. 196-197, n. 77 F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Settecento, Rome 2010 ad vocem