Dihl & Guerhard At the age of fourteen, on the advice of his maternal uncle, Merry-Joseph went to work in the office of a
Notary, an experience which he would later describe as "excruciating". After two years of complaining to his father, in 1797, a place was secured for him as an apprentice at the Dihl and Guerhard
porcelain factory, where young apprentices received figure drawing lessons from the celebrated Charles-Etienne Leguay for five out of every ten working days. By 1801, however, demand for Dihl and Guerhard porcelain had increased so much that the drawing department was eliminated and apprentices were expected to focus on decorative techniques more suited to the demands of mass-production, directly on the factory floor.
Regnault's studio and the Prix de Rome In 1801, once again, Blondel convinced his father to break his apprenticeship contract as his drawing talent secured him a place in the studio of Baron Jean-Baptiste Regnault. Within a year, Blondel had acquired the nickname
Monsieur Cinq-Prix (Mr Five-prizes) among his peers at the studio, on account of the number of medals and prizes he had won for his drawing. Another year on and Blondel's entry to the 1803 salon, a painting depicting
Aeneas rescuing his father from the burning city of Troy, won him the
Grand Prix de Rome. However, due to a change in the system and the temporary suspension of scholarships, no students were sent to the
French Academy in Rome that year and Blondel would have to wait until 1809 before he could take his place at the
Villa Medici. visiting the Palais Royal for the opening of the Tribunat in 1807'', oil on canvas
Rome and Ingres On arrival at the Villa Medici in Rome in 1809, Blondel struck up a friendship with fellow student Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres which, as correspondence between the two artists demonstrated, lasted for the rest of their lives. In 1835, Ingres returned as the director of the French Academy in Rome and Blondel appeared to be the favourite to succeed him in 1840. Together with his second wife, Louise Emilie Delafontaine, Blondel stayed at the Villa Medici as a guest of Ingres for four months in 1839, during which time the three of them undertook a lengthy sketching tour of
the Marches and
Umbria. When Blondel was unexpectedly overlooked for the position of director of the academy in 1840, Ingres sent him a "lengthy and heartfelt" letter of condolence.
Further awards After three years in Rome, Blondel returned to Paris and became a regular exhibitor at the Louvre salon exhibitions. At the salon of 1817, Blondel won a gold medal for his painting depicting the
Death of Louis XII. After the
Salon of 1824, the rank of
Chevalier (Knight) in the order of the ''Legion d'Honneur'', was bestowed upon both Blondel and Ingres by the French King, Charles X.
Académie and École In 1824, the year of his knighthood, Blondel was awarded a professorship at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, a position which he occupied until his death in 1853. In that same year, Blondel also competed for a vacant seat at the Académie des beaux-arts but lost out to Ingres. He was eventually elected to a seat at the Académie in 1832. ==Public commissions==