Pierre-victor Galland, Profile Of A Young Girl, 1891, Oil And Pastel On Cardboard

Pierre-Victor GALLAND 
(Geneva 1822 - 1892 Paris)
Profile of a young girl
1891
oil and pastel on board
43 x 33 cm (view); 54.5 x 44.5 cm (framed)
signed dedicated and titled
slight pitting and pinholes on the background, framed with antique glass

Selective bibliography :
Pierre-Victor Galland 1822-1892, Un Tiepolo français au XIXe siècle (cat. exp.), dir. J. Cerrano, Somogy ed. 2006

Notable museums :
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Nancy Fine Arts Museums
Mobilier National
Magnin Museum, Dijon

To find out more:
Pierre-Victor Galland, nicknamed ‘the French Tiepolo’, was rehabilitated in art history thanks to the major retrospective exhibition organised by the Musée de la Piscine in Roubaix in 2006. This great decorator successively decorated the foyer of the Opéra, the walls of the Panthéon, the Sorbonne, the ceiling of Paris City Hall, as well as numerous private mansions, including that of Jacquemart-André.

He had an admirable career under the Second Empire and the Third Republic. He was initially trained by Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri, before joining the studio of architect Henri Labrouste. However, he stayed away from the official Salon, where he exhibited only a few works. A close friend of the Marquis de Chennevières, he taught decorative composition at the Beaux-Arts, before being appointed director of works of art at the Manufacture des Gobelins.
Our portrait is one of the last that Galland produced; the date 1891 is a moving testimony to the very end of his career. It is one of those works that show Galland as a keen observer of life: ‘the artist excelled in scenes of family intimacy’ (p. 28). This portrait is dedicated, probably to a close friend.

At the same time, Galland was completing the decoration for the Galerie des Métiers at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.