Louis Gallait

Gallait, Lours, Flemish painter; born at Tournai, May 10, 1810; died in Brussels, November 20, 1887. He produced melodramatic and sensational pictures, very much on the lines of those of Ary Scheffer, with a leaning towards the pathetic and emotional side. Gallait was, however, a more accomplished painter than Scheffer, with whom his works have frequently been compared. His coloring was superior, and his drawing more accurate, but the two men were possessed of similar devotional fervor, and poetic emotion of a sentimental type. Gallait was a youthful prodigy, and produced his first picture when ten years old, obtaining an important local prize for it. One of his earliest performances was purchased by the municipal authorities of Tournai and presented to the Cathedral, and it was owing to the generosity of his own towns-people that he was enabled in 1835 to go to Paris and study under Hennequin. He became a member of the Institute of France, and honorary foreign Royal Academician. Several of his pictures were exhibited in London in 1862, and three at the Royal Academy in 1872, when he was residing at 51 Bedford Square. He painted in water-colors as well as in oil, and was made an honorary member of the Royal Institute.

GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON.