Edouard Auguste Wallays

EDOUARD AUGUSTE WALLAYS (Bruges, Belgium, 1813- 1891).
"The Conquest of Valencia".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It conserves frame of epoch.
Presents label on the back.
Signed in the inferior zone.
Measurements: 102 x 125 cm; 141 x 173 cm (frame).
Dynamic battle scene of the conquest of Valencia in which an army advances in the center of the city. History painting was traditionally considered the most important genre. This preeminence was explained by a certain concept that art had to propose noble and plausible examples. Therefore, the superiority of those artistic works in which what was narrated was considered elevated or noble was defended. However, in this case, as mentioned above, the author does not seek to narrate a story, but rather to show the gesture of the action, the chaos and the movement of a war battle.
Edouard Wallays was a Belgian romantic painter, known for his paintings of history, religious themes, portraits, genre scenes and interiors. He won a vermeil medal at the Brussels Salon of 1848 and participated in the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855. From 1855 to 1887 he was director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bruges. His works are preserved in the Museum of Groningen and the Museum of Maritime Art in Ostend. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bruges with Albert Grégorius, and later at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Later he studied with Jozef Geirnaert in Ghent. In Paris, to complete his training, he lived from 1834 (in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine) to 1839. He exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1834, then at the Ghent Salon of 1835. He was also present at the Bruges Exhibition of 1837, to which he sent a history painting depicting Thierry d'Alsace, which was favorably received by critics. His history paintings contributed to strengthening the young Belgian nation by highlighting its major figures of the past.