Jeux d'Enfants, By Pierre Victor Galland About 1860

This poetic suite illustrates a number of scenes inspired by childhood games and ancient themes: a blindfolded child evoking blind Love, a putti riding a dolphin, a child gliding on the waves, or a balanced child figure. The ensemble develops a graceful repertoire inherited from 18th-century France and the Venetian tradition, revisited with the decorative elegance characteristic of the 19th century.

A painting bearing the red monogram “P.V.G.” in the lower right corne

The qualities that made Galland's reputation are to be found in these compositions: a luminous palette dominated by celestial blues, pearly complexions, delicate modeling and airy atmospheres. The supple brushstrokes and refined harmonies bear witness to a particularly accomplished decorative research.

A pupil of Michel Martin Drolling and later a collaborator of Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri, Pierre-Victor Galland (1822-1892) established himself as one of the most important French decorative painters of the second half of the 19th century. A friend of Puvis de Chavannes and admired for his monumental sense of composition, he participated in numerous prestigious decorations for private mansions, palaces and public buildings.
He created decorative ensembles for Madame Païva's hotel on the Champs-Élysées, the foyer of the Opéra Garnier, the Hôtel de Ville de Paris, as well as several aristocratic residences and collectors' homes. His decorative work, nourished by the study of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael and the French 18th-century masters, exerted a major influence on subsequent generations of decorators, and in some respects heralded the aesthetics of Art Nouveau.

This decorative suite, with its refinement and elegant charm, perfectly illustrates this art of ornamental painting developed by Galland during the Second Empire and the Third Republic.

.Very good condition.