Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings - Volume I.djvu/211

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Benvenuto Cellini, King William at Königgrätz (1867).—Allgem. d. Biogr., ii. 719; Rosenberg, Berl. Malersch., 56.


BLONDEEL, LANCELOT, born at Bruges, in 1495, died there, March 4, 1561. Flemish school; was a journeyman mason before becoming a painter, and adopted the trowel as his mark; received into guild of St. Luke in 1530. He was an accomplished architect, and his pictures are noted for their rich architectural backgrounds, often in Renaissance style, executed on gold ground. His figures, chiefly in the Italian style, are often well set in action and finished, but mannered and of cold flesh tones. Among his works are: Martyrdom of SS. Cosmo and Damian (1523), S. Jacques, Bruges; Madonna with SS. Luke and Eligius (1545), Cathedral, ib.; St. Luke painting the Virgin (1545), Academy, ib.; St. Peter, Brussels Museum.—Biog. nat. de Belgique, ii. 525; Michiels, v. 48.


BLOOMER, H. REYNOLDS, born in New York; contemporary. Landscape painter; pupil in Paris of Pelouse. Works: El Dorado (1876); After the Shower, Landscape (1877); Old Bridge at Grez, Waterfall near Cernay-la-Ville (1878).


BLUE BOY, Thomas Gainsborough, Grosvenor House, London; canvas, H. 5 ft. 9 in. × 4 ft. Portrait of a youth, full length, standing in a landscape, clad in a blue satin Van Dyck dress. Painted, it is said, in 1779, as a practical refutation of Reynolds's theory that the cold colours, of which blue is the chief, cannot be used effectively in portrait painting. Engraved by R. Graves (1868); etched by C. Waltner (1880), P. Rajon (1881). History obscure. Another Blue Boy, owned in 1873 by J. Sewell, London, seems to have some claims to being the original picture, though some think it a copy by Gainsborough Dupont. A third, smaller, is owned by Mrs. Freake.—Fulcher, 113, 202; Redgrave, Century, i. 165; Waagen, Art Treasures, ii. 173; Brock-Arnold, 42, 60; Notes and Queries, 4th S., xi. 485, 505; Eng. Painters of Georgian Era, 14.

Blue Boy, Gainsborough, Grosvenor House, London.


BLUM, ROBERT, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1857. First exhibited in New York in 1879; studied and painted in Italy, and Spain in 1880. Member of Society of American Artists. Studio in New York. Works: Toledo Water-Carriers, T. B. Clarke, New York; Going and Coming (1881); Bright Day at Venice (1882).


BOAR HUNT, Velasquez, National Gallery, London; canvas, H. 6 ft. 2 in. × 10 ft. 3 in. Philip IV. and his courtiers hunting wild boars in an arena enclosed by canvas walls, in the Pardo, a royal hunting seat two leagues from Madrid; the King, with Olivares near him on a bay horse; the Cardinal Infant, Don Fernando, on a white horse; Juan Mateos, royal huntsman, an old man on a white horse with long mane; spectators on foot and in carriages. Queen Isabel among the spectators in second carriage.