Blaas, Eugène de (1843-1931; Austrian-Italian)
Venetian Girl 1 and 2
Two panels, each c.30.5 x 22.9 cm
Purchased, 1879; de-accessioned and sold at auction, 1950
Present locations unknown
[photo: work reproduced in NGV 1894]
An academic classicist, Blaas became Professor at the Academy in Venice (where he was known as Eugenio). He was well known for his society portraits and genre paintings featuring young women.
The two works noted here were bought as a pair, and NGV 1894 illustrates one, as reproduced here. Still listed in the NGV’s 1943 catalogue (cat.50-51), they were sold off together in 1950.
Refs.
AR 1879, p.55; SB, p.307 (including an added note about the 1950 auction); NGV 1894, pp.20 & 23 (I.La Trobe Gallery, nos.24 and 28, both listed as measuring 12 x 9 inches; no.28 is reproduced as shown here); NGV 1905, pp.16-17 (I.La Trobe Gallery, nos.27 and 29) [£37/10 each]
The artist’s date of death is generally given as either 1931 or 1932, but AKL 11 (1995), pp.298-300 (part of a longer entry on the Blaas family) advises that he died in Venice on 10 Feb.1931; see also Bénézit 2, pp.551-52; both AKL and Bénézit note a “Venetian Girl” in the NGV. For Blaas, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_de_Blaas (reproducing various other examples)