Gaston Balande  Gaston Balande (born in Madrid, died in Paris), was a French painter and illustrator . Gaston Balande learnt to draw by copying the prints and chromolithographs he saw on the market stalls at Saujon where he lived. He clearly had innate talent, winning first prize for drawing at his primary school; but having gained his certificat d’études, he was forced to start work rather than continuing with his studies. His mother wanted him to be a pastry chef, a profession she thought would be useful for the family restaurant. The young man refused and got his first job as an apprentice painter at a carriage maker's. His second was as a house painter. After that he finally found a job that suited him with a picture restorer. This was where his taste for painting was confirmed, and he decided to make it his career. Here he learned the rudiments of easel painting as he accompanied his employer on his trips to paint after nature. Balande's artistic training gained new impetus with the intervention of Alfred Goutureaud, abbot of Royan and an amateur painter, who in 1900 introduced him to his former teacher, Henri-Joseph Harpignies, arranging a meeting in Paris, at the Exposition Universelle. Harpignies wrote a letter of recommendation for his protégé to the director of the École des Beaux-Arts to enable him to improve his drawing. His first lessons were not enough to gain him access to the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs; so, pending the next session, in March 1901, Balande went back to his hand-to-mouth jobs, working in a sign painting workshop for two francs a day. At the end of these strenuous working days he took evening courses at the design school in Rue Étienne Marcel. He visited Harpignies several times to have his progress assessed. As Balande would recall in his memoirs, ‘I showed him my work from the evening classes, and he encouraged me! And before I left, he poured me a good glass of vintage wine and put a louis d’or in my hand, saying “I don’t like poverty.” This encouragement and generosity bore fruit: a few weeks later, Balande was admitted to the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, having come fifth in the entrance examination. At last, he would benefit from a professional artistic training.