Jean-Jacques Gailliard was a Belgium artist who was born in Brussels in 1890. He was the son of impressionistic painter Franz Gaillard from whom he also received his first drawing and painting lessons. In his youth he was often surrounded by painters and musicians.
Gailliard at the academy of Brussels and was a pupil of Emily Fabry, Guillaume van Strydonck and Jean Delville. Later he attended lessons by Herman Richir, Victor Rousseau and Aerts. He also attended a literature subject given by Georges Eeckhoud. His last teacher was sculptor Pieter Braecke at the academy of Sint-Joost-ten-Node in 1915.
Gailliard had a spiritualistic orientation which led to symbolism in his first artworks in combination with pointillism. Between the two World Wars his work became more abstract and he became a member of the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. In 1928 he returned to figurative art again, which he called surimpressionism. This would refer to the reality behind the visible reality. This was also the moment where he began to use texts in combination with figures on his artworks.
During Gailliards life he made several views of Brussels and Oostende and also some portraits of artist and writers he befriended, such as Maurice Maeterlinck, Michel de Ghelderode, Fernand Khnopff and James Ensor. Gaillaird died in 1976 in Sint-Gillis.
