Louis Gallait (1810-1887) Portrait Of A Man Of Quality, Watercolor And Highlights Of Gouache

Louis Gallait (1810-1887)
Portrait of a Gentleman,
Watercolor and gouache on paper, square white lines, 24 x 16 cm
Stamp of the Louis Gallait Estate on the mount on the lower right
On a cardboard mount (27 x 21 cm), with an inventory number (dwg 455) on the lower right
Inscribed "Par Louis Gallait 1810-1887" on the reverse of the mount
Provenance : Family of the Artist This work was without doubt the last stage before the definitive oil painting portrait. The gouache and watercolor give already clear indication of the effects the painter intended to give with oil. The white square lines were used to define the sketch on the canvas. This very interesting and touching work gives us a testimony of the work ot the artist in the intimacy of his worshop, may be more personal than the definitive work.

Louis Gallait was a belgian artist born in Tournai in 1810. He was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tournai, he completed his training in Antwerp. In 1833 he exhibited in Brussels "Christ healing the blind", a painting much appreciated by the public and which was bought by public subscription for the cathedral of Tournai. The following year he went to Paris and worked in the studio of Paul Delaroche. Back in Belgium, Gallait created a school of history painting in a romantic style. Highly esteemed in France he received orders for several historical paintings for the museum the History of France, created by Louis-Philippe in a wing of the Palace of Versailles. He also had many portraits commissioned, drawn or painted. He produced the portrait of Georges Sand and Frédéric Chopin, met in Paris. Many of his works are present in belgian Museums such as the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.