Biography
The French Gallery was founded by the picture dealer and print publisher Ernest Gambart by 1854. The gallery held annual spring exhibitions of French painting from 1854 until at least 1896, and annual winter exhibitions of British art. During Gambart’s tenure, the gallery exhibited work by many of the most prominent artists of the period, including John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Ford Madox Brown, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, and Rosa Bonheur. In 1867, Gambart sold the lease of the gallery to the dealer Henry Wallis (who had been managing the space since 1861). The French Gallery continued to mount regular exhibitions into the early twentieth century.
