1810 -1887 · Tournai, Paris, Brussels and Belgian historical romanticism

Great history painting, truth of costumes and national emotion make Louis Gallait a major figure in Belgian romanticism in the 19th century.

Louis Gallait was born in Tournai in 1810. Coming from a modest background, he entered the Academy of his city and trained with Cornelis Cels then Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, a former student of David. This first teaching gave him a solid neoclassical drawing. After a prize won at the Salon de Ghent in 1832, he continued his training in Antwerp, discovered the color of Rubens and the romanticism of Gustaf Wappers, then stayed in Paris where he frequented Ary Scheffer and Paul Delaroche. Gallait chose history painting at a time when young Belgium was looking for images of a national identity in its past. The Abdication of Charles V, presented in 1841, enjoyed international success: solemn architecture, studied costumes and individualized expressions make the political event a human drama. The Last Honors paid to the Counts of Egmont and Hornes looks back on the victims of Spanish domination and combines funeral realism, collective memory and romantic theatricality. Based in Brussels, Gallait received large public commissions, also painted portraits and exerted a considerable influence on the Belgian school and on European history painting. He died in Brussels in 1887, leaving a work where documentary accuracy always served emotion and the staging of national destiny. The "Louis Gallait" selection notably highlights look at The Abdication of Charles V and The Last Honors at Egmont and Hornes. Its reading favors atmosphere.

Gallait gives the story the strength of a testimony: costumes, faces and silence make the past immediately present.