With the exception of Dupre, Blanc knew all the painters of whom he writes in the ‘Artistes de mon Temps’ (Artists of My Time).  The work is therefore replete with personal recollections.  Here again the general interest is deepened by the warm interest which the author takes in the men and events of the time.  There are many charming pages devoted to Felix Duban, Delacroix, and Calamatta; to the contemporary medallions of David d’Angers; to Henri Leys, Chenavard, and Troyon; to Corot, the lover of nature who saw her through a veil of poetry; to Jules Dupre and Rousseau, who saw the poetry innate in her.  He introduces us to the caricaturists Grandville and Gavarni; to Barye’s lifelike animals.  On reading the lives of these men, one is struck by the fact that they produced their masterpieces at about the age of twenty years.

The ‘Treasures of Art in Manchester,’ and ‘From Paris to Vienna,’ were published in 1857.  The latter contained curious information about the sale of art works during the seventeenth century, with the prices they brought, and is enlivened with short spirited sketches of artists and amateurs.  In 1867 Blanc became a member of the Academic des Beaux Arts.  The ‘Treasures of Curiosity’ is a catalogue of pictures and engravings sold between 1830 and the date of the appearance of the book.

Devoted to purely artistic subjects, the Journal des Beaux Arts, founded by Blanc, rendered great service to art by spreading a taste for it among the cultivated classes.  The ‘Grammar of Painting and Engraving’ first appeared in this periodical.  Though given up to a consideration of technical subjects, the work abounds in poetic touches and has great interest for the general reader.  In 1875 it was discussed in the French Academy, when its author competed for the chair left vacant by the death of Vitel.  He was not elected until the following year, though his book met with great success, and led to the revival of engraving in France.

When he began his studies for the life of Ingres, which appeared in 1867, he found many letters of the artist, which enabled him to follow the latter through the various phases of his life:  to know the changes of his temper, the inflexibility of his character; his emotions day by day; his momentary discouragements, his great will-power; the heroic efforts he made to reach the heights; his ideas on art, his opinions of others as well as himself:  and thanks to these documents, he was enabled to reproduce one of the most remarkable personalities, if not the most original one, of the French school.

In 1870 he was again made Director of Fine Arts.  He introduced several reforms in the organization of the Salon, and founded a 4,000-franc prize.  But the spirit of reaction could not forgive his political antecedents; and in 1873, on the fall of Thiers, he was removed before he could complete his plan for establishing a museum of copies to reproduce the masterpieces of painting.  One well-deserved satisfaction was granted him in 1878 by the creation of a chair of AEsthetics and Art History in the College of France, which he was called by special decree to fill; and there he taught for three years.