Theodor Blanch

Theodor Blanch

Blanch's Cafe

Gustaf Carleman: Blanchs constsalong

Theodor Julius Blanch (born June 18, 1835 in Berlin ; died October 3, 1911 in Stockholm ) was a German - Swedish restaurateur , art dealer and theater director .

Life

Theodor Blanch came to Sweden in 1855 at the age of twenty. At first he lived in Gothenburg , where he took over the management of the Lorensberg restaurant. He then worked in various restaurants in Stockholm. In 1859 he became managing director of the city hotel in Jönköping and from November 1862 took over the management of the Hallsberg train station restaurant . Then he was 1866-1867 restaurant manager of the Operakällaren (opera cellar) in Stockholm.

In 1868 he opened his own coffee house at Kungsträdgården Park in downtown Stockholm , the Blanchs Café , which is based on the Central European model . With its concerts every evening with writers and artists, it became a popular meeting place. Due to the success of his café, Theodor Blanch was commissioned to run a restaurant with Swedish specialties at the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna . Since 1877 Blanch had a summer house in the park of Ulriksdal Castle, Villa Skogsborg . In 1878 he had electric light installed in his Stockholm café. Blanch's Café was one of the first buildings in Sweden to have this type of interior lighting. In 1881 he transferred the café to another operator. After running a so-called Viennese café in Stockholm for a short time, he then devoted himself to other business areas.

As early as 1879 he had opened his own theater at the back of his café with the Blanchs Theater. There have been guest performances by foreign theater companies, lectures, chamber music evenings and variety performances. After years of financially little success, he stopped operating the theater and from 1883 began using its rooms as the Blanchs konstsalong art gallery . Exhibitions with works by domestic and foreign artists were held here. In 1885 and 1886 there were exhibitions of the Opponenterna , a group of young artists who opposed the art business of the Royal Academy , which were important for Swedish art history in Blanchs konstsalong . From 1889 the artists' association Konstnärsförbundet used the rooms for their exhibitions. Theodor Blanch was also active as an art dealer since the founding of Blanchs konstsalong and was called hovkonsthandlare (court art dealer).

Blanch married Adolfina Paulina Amberg, widow of the piano maker Erik Jacobson, on October 5, 1904. Blanch died in Stockholm in 1911. The Blanchs Café he founded existed until 1918. Blanchs konstsalong was closed in 1915 and the rooms were then used as a theater again. The new name Blancheteatern , however, did not refer to Theodor Blanch, but was derived from the playwright August Theodor Blanche .

literature

• G. Jacobson: Theodor J Blanch: Gallerist, Konsthandlare, Restauratör . Article in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon . (Accessed November 3, 2019)
• Blanch, Teodor Julius , entry in Nordisk familjebok , 1905, p. 642. (Accessed November 3, 2019)