David Bles

David Bles (1821, The Hague – 1899, The Hague), was a 19th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands.

David Jozef Bles

Poverty and wealth, 1848, collection Teylers Museum

Biography

David Bles was born to a merchant I. Bles.^[1]

According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History, at the age of thirteen Bles was talented enough to be accepted at the Hague Academy.^[2] He attended classes from 1834 to 1837 and from 1838 to 1841. He became a pupil of the painter Cornelis Kruseman and his nephew Jan Adam Kruseman.^[2] Bles then travelled to France to study with Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury in Paris. He remained in Paris until 1843 after which he settled in The Hague, though he was a member of the Royal Academy in Amsterdam between 1845 and 1899.^[2] In 1850-60, his paintings were exhibited in various European countries. In 1859, he was elected an honorary associate of the Imperial Academy of Arts.^[1]

He painted scenes from the history of Dutch painting and is best known for portraits and genre paintings.^[2]