02 Works, The art of War, Louis Gallait's War and Peace, with Footnotes

Louis Gallait (Belgian, 1810-1887) (Artist)

War, c. 1872

Oil on canvas

H: 47 1/4 x W: 32 11/16 in. (120 x 83 cm)

The Walters Art Museum

When this pair of allegorical paintings (together with Walters 37.124) was completed in 1872, a Belgian critic wrote: "M. Gallait just finished two paintings forming a pendant pair that rank among the best things he has ever done. They are allegories of peace and war, but allegories conceived in a new order of ideas, substituting living reality for imaginary abstractions. . ." More on these paintings

Louis Gallait (Belgian, 1810-1887) (Artist)

Peace, c. 1872

Oil on canvas

H: 46 7/16 x W: 32 3/8 in. (118 x 82.3 cm)

The Walters Art Museum

Louis Gallait (9 or 10 May 1810 – 20 November 1887) was a Belgian painter. He lay at the basis of a revival of history painting in Belgium. Gallait's works were esteemed because of their realism, faithfulness of the costumes and color composition of his paintings. 

Gallait first studied under Philippe Auguste Hennequin. In 1832 his first picture, Tribute to Caesar, won a prize at the Salon of Ghent. He then went to Antwerp to continue his studies under Mathieu Ignace van Brée, and in the following year exhibited at the Brussels Salon Christ Healing the Blind. Gallait next went to Paris, and he sent to the Belgian Salons Job on the Dunghill, Montaigne Visiting Tasso in Prison, and – to the Brussels Gallery in 1841 — The Abdication of Charles V. The latter painting, which had been commissioned by the Belgian government, was hailed as a triumph and gained him a European reputation. 

"M. Gallait has all the gifts that may be acquired by work, taste, judgment and determination," wrote Théophile Gautier. His art is that of a man of tact, a skilled painter, happy in his dramatic treatment but superficial. No doubt, this Walloon artist, following the example of the Flemings of the Renaissance and the treatment of Belgian classical painters and the French Romantic school, sincerely aimed at truth. Unfortunately, misled by contemporary taste, he could not conceive of it other than as dressed in sentimentality. As an artist employed by the State, he exercised considerable influence, and for a long time he was the leader of public taste in Brussels.

In 1849 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, and the next year he became associated member.

Gallait died in Brussels in 1887. More on Louis Gallait

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