For a long time, this artist stood in the shadow of his father, the famous architect and theoretician Jacques-François Blondel (1705-1774). It is only more recent research on Piranesi and his influence on his French contemporaries that has again drawn attention to the activity of the son. For that reason, we still know very little about the life of Georges-François Blondel. It is certain that he sojourned in Rome between 1756 and 1760 - at the same time as Hubert Robert and Fragonard. Later, around 1763, he must have been in Amsterdam, as is attested by a dated stage design inscribed to that effect in the Rijksmuseum. This was followed by a stay in London in 1765-74. There he took part in a number of public exhibitions and published eight mezzotints. Into this medium, practised in England at the time, he transferred drawings inspired by Piranesi and possibly already done in Rome. After this, there are no traces of G.-F. Blondel until he surfaces again in 1790 in Paris, during the Revolution, with a design for the decoration of the 'Fête de la Fédération'. Blondel's draughtsmanly oeuvre has hardly been studied as yet.
