Octave Gallian (1855-1905) Portrait Of A Countess, In 1885.

Octave GALLIAN (1855-1905) Portrait of a countess, oil on canvas signed lower left and dated 85, coat of arms upper left, in a large wooden frame and period gilded stuck 184x123cm Octave Gallian is the son of a Toulon industrialist from Vaucluse. He spent his youth in Toulon in a wealthy environment, showing very early gifts for the piano and the violin, but it was painting that he turned to. He studied in Paris at the École des beaux-arts and the Académie Julian with Jules Lefebvre, Gustave Boulanger and Charles Ginoux. He set up his studio in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré where he practiced the art of portraiture, especially of women, but he often returned to the Provençal landscapes of his youth between Toulon and Martigues. He is a member of the Toulon fine arts workshop. In 1887, he received the order for two decorative panels for the staircase of the Toulon Art Museum (Provençal Fisherman and Vanneuse) which were destroyed in a bombing during the Second World War. Octave Gallian exhibited at the Salon of French Artists between 1878 and 1905. He obtained an honorable mention there in 1884 for Une bouée, rade de Toulon; this painting, no. 995 in the catalog, was acquired by the State which donated it to the Musée de la Castre in Cannes. Abandoning the official Salon for a time, he attended that of the Société nationale des beaux-arts from 1891 to 1894. He also participated in the exhibitions of the Friends of the Arts of Toulon, notably in 1902 with Le Castellet and La Baie des Anges.