Jacques Balmat Jacques Balmat Jacques Balmat, called "le Mont Blanc" (1762–1834) was a mountaineer, a Savoyard mountain guide, born in the Chamonix valley in Savoy, at this time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. A chamois hunter and collector of crystals, Balmat completed the first ascent of Mont Blanc with physician Michel-Gabriel Paccard on 8 August 1786. For this feat, King Victor Amadeus III gave him the honorary title "le Mont Blanc". Balmat and Paccard's ascent of Mont Blanc was a major accomplishment in the early history of mountaineering. C. Douglas Milner wrote "The ascent itself was magnificent; an amazing feat of
Michel Martin Drolling and precision of detail. He died in Paris. His most important pupils include Paul Baudry, , Jules Breton, Theodor Aman, Roger Fenton, , Charles Joshua Chaplin, Pierre-Victor Galland, Jean-Jacques Henner, Cornelius Krieghoff, Armand Laroche, , Charles Nègre, John Charles Robinson, Jules-Émile Saintin, Théophile Schuler and William Strutt. Michel Martin Drolling Michel Martin Drolling (7 March 1786 – 9 January 1851) was a neoclassic French painter, painter of history and portraitist. He was born in Paris. There, he began painting under the supervision of his father, the painter Martin Drolling. After 1806, he studied with Jacques-Louis David. He won the Prix