BLANCHARD, JAMES, a painter. He was born at Paris, and learnt the rudiments of his profession under Nicholas Boller, his uncle; but left him at twenty years of age, and travelled into Italy. He staid two years at Rome, and thence proceeded to Venice, where he was so charmed with the works of Titian, Tintoret, and Paul Veronese, that he resolved to follow their manner; and in this he succeeded so well, that at his return to Paris he soon became generally esteemed. He painted two galleries at Paris, one belonging to Pérault, the first president, and the other to Bullion, superintendent of the finances; but his best piece is a picture of the descent of the Holy Ghost, in the church of Notre Dame. He was seized, in the flower of his age, with a fever and imposthume in the lungs, and died in 1688.