Madame Louis Gally by Jacques Claude Collet

Madame Louis Gally, née Aglaë Nicola, was born in Paris, France. She met and married Louis Gally, a member of a prominent Louisiana Creole family, in France. The young couple moved to New Orleans and lived on St. Peter Street in the Vieux Carré. While visiting relative in Paris, Gally had her likeness painted by noted artist Jacques Claude Collet.

Working in the prevailing French neoclassical tradition, Collet’s portrait of Madame Louis Gally is meticulously rendered with a great deal of attention devoted to the satin ribbons and lace of her bonnet and collar. The dark background emphasizes the elegantly dressed woman’s face. A member of the French Academy, Collet exhibited regularly at the Paris salons from 1822 to 1840. The Louisiana State Museum has three other portraits of the Gally family, including those of Hypolite Gally and Anaïs Adele Verret Gally by Jean Joseph Vaudechamp and a larger-than-life portrait of Major Louis Gally, which were all donated by the Wogan family.