Horace Le Blanc was born in Lyon, France, and traveled to Italy before returning to his hometown where he established a studio for students and assistants to help with his commissions. The few records documenting his early years indicate that Le Blanc was a student or assistant to Palma il Giovane in Veniceand Giovanni Lanfranco in Rome. Lanfranco’s influence is evident in the dramatic religious subjects Le Blanc supplied to convents and churches in and around Lyon. Le Blanc may have also formulated his teaching methods using an Italian model, stressing the mastery of drawing the human form with instructions in the principles of composition and color based on the teachings of Perugino and Raphael.