Upon completion of his studies, he was awarded the school’s highest award: Le Prix du Ministre.īy 1932 Blanchard left Rennes and traveled to Paris to study.

He continued his training in Rennes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied sculpture and drawing. Blanchard would watch his father hand carve the furniture, and he began to display an artistic flair early in life - in an effort to promote this talent, his parents sent him to Blois for drawing lessons. He was the eldest of three children, and his father, a carver, managed a small carpentry and furniture shop. Antoine Blanchard was born in France on November 15, 1910, in a small village near the banks of the Loire.