Note on black French artist (6)
I believe the answer is:
renoir
'artist' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'note on black french' is the wordplay.
'note' becomes 're'.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'black french' becomes 'noir' ('black' in French).
're'+'noir'='RENOIR'
(Other definitions for renoir that I've seen before include "'No, I err, he was a painter (6)'" , "French artist" , "Pierre Auguste ---, painter; Jean ---, film-director" , "Pierre ---, impressionist" , "French Impressionist painter, 1841-1919" .)