Jan Monchablon

He was born in Châtillon-sur-Saône. His father was an official with the local health department. Monchablon began his education at the Collège Notre-Dame in Nantes. In 1875, after working as a private tutor, he became a professor in Quimper. Six years later, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Jean-Paul Laurens.^[1] From 1883 to 1884, he took further lessons in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. Finding himself attracted to the works of the Flemish masters, he took a study trip to the Netherlands in 1886. It was at that time he began signing his name "Jan", instead of "Jean".

Upon his return, Monchablon married Fanny Julien, a pianist he had met while studying at the École, and they decided to settle in his hometown, leasing property there and planting a small vineyard to help defray expenses.^[1] Despite his relatively isolated location, he continued to exhibit regularly at the Salon and won several medals there as well as at the Exposition Universelle (1900).^[1]

Monchablon was admitted to the Legion d'honneur in 1895.^[2] He died in 1904 in Châtillon-sur-Saône.

His friend Roland Knoedler (an American art dealer), commissioned Antoine Bourdelle to create a monument in his honor, which was destroyed during World War II. A replacement was later created by the sculptor Marcel Joosen (born 1943).

Many of Monchablon's paintings are in small museums in the United States, including the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California.