Domburg. He spent the next ten years painting, etching, sketching and photographing the village, the dike, the people and their traditional way of life. Following the destruction of the area in the bombing of October 1944, Galloway's work became an invaluable record of life in the pre-war era, and, as such, has been kept by the Polderhuis (Dyke and Polder War Museum of Westkapelle). Examples of Galloway's work are also held in the Royal Archives of
Queen Juliana of the
Netherlands.
Between 1926 and 1950, Galloway lived mainly in the town of
Cluj,
Romania. He worked for the
Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania
The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania ( ro, Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei; hu, Erdélyi néprajzi múzeum) is situated in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. With a history of almost 100 years, the ''Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania'' is one of the fi ...
in Cluj between 1927 and 1929, spending periods of 5 to 6 months in different ethnographic areas of Transylvania. He painted watercolours of traditional rural holidays, paying particular attention to the finer details of traditional folk costumes. He collected ethnic objects and took photographs in the
Kalotaszeg region, in
Piladureni,
Hațeg and in the
Banat region. which were donated to the museum in 1927.
Between 1930 and 1938, Galloway's connections with the Museum loosened, but there are a large number of his negatives from that time taken in the
Nasaud county, and in the
Tara Barsei
Țara Bârsei, Burzenland () or Barcaság is a historic and ethnographic area in southeastern Transylvania, Romania with a mixed population of Romanians, Germans, and Hungarians.
Geography
The Burzenland lies within the Southern Carpathians m ...
,
Osa
Osa or OSA may refer to:
Places
* Osa Peninsula, a peninsula in Costa Rica
* Osa (canton), a canton in the province of Puntarenas in Costa Rica
* Osa Conservation Area, an administrative area in Costa Rica
* Osa, India, a village in Allahabad, I ...
and
Bucovina regions which, in 1950 at the age of 72, Galloway donated to the Ethnographic Museum for their archives. They now hold about 450 negatives of his taken in the
Netherlands,
Germany,
Poland and the
Czech Republic, 647 negatives of pictures taken in
Romania, and 27 autochrome glass plaques.
Exhibitions of his artwork and photography are still being displayed, for example in Erdelyt Museum in July 2008 and at Polderhuis, Westkapelle from 2008 to mid 2009.
Camera and pictures
Galloway used a Goertz camera on 8x11cm, 9x12cm and later 13x18cm glass plaques.
Galloway's pictures are generally characterised by a harmony of composition and aesthetics. He aimed to produce a faithful documentation of the finest details, as can be seen in his paintings displayed at Westkapelle.
Galloway's photographs fall mainly into three categories:
# Pictures taken under the direction of ethnographical professor Romulus Vuia. These had a clear "ethnographic importance", registering information related to dwellings, households, specific activities, clothes and customs. These were also taken in both geographically and ethnically diverse communities (
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
,
Hungarian,
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
and
Slavic), with distinctive historical statuses. His pictures kept a colourful and detailed image of traditional Transylvanian rural life in the years 1920–1930.
# Pictures based on his own ideas, the common element in this group is aesthesis. These landscapes and snapshots, with their blurred characters immortalize ordinary people through skilfully captured aesthetic moments.
# Pictures made for the village people, his models, are the most numerous. Here Galloway's negatives became a means of bonding, a way of strengthening his position within the community.
Final years
In 1950, Galloway returned to Britain and settled in London with his brother, Christian. He donated his Dutch art to the Museum at Westkapelle, and his Transylvanian negatives to the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania.
In 1953, Galloway joined the
Folk-Lore Society
The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore.
It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...
and in his will he bequeathed his remaining collection of ethnographic photographs to the
Folk-Lore Society
The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore.
It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...
at
University College, London.
Denis Galloway died, aged 79, at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London.
Bibliography
* Dingemanse-Dieleman, Ans. & Hengst, Daan "Schetsplezier : Denis Galloway (1878-1957): schilder, etser, tekenaar, fotograaf". Westkapelle: Kijk-en Oorlogsmuseum Polderhuis, 2009
* Napoca, 2008TOTSZEGI Tekla – Traditional Village Viewed by Denis Galloway, Ed. Argonaut, Cluj. The Ethnographical Museum of Transylvania publication
* "The Compact Edition of the Dictionary of National Biography" Vol. II, Oxford University Press 1975 . Sir William Galloway (1840–1927)
References
External links
The Heritage House of Hungary.
The Ethnographical Museum of Transylvania
The Polderhuis Exhibition, Westkapelle.
Ziua de Cluj, Newspaper Article.8 Aug 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galloway, Denis
1878 births
1957 deaths
Scottish photographers
Artists from Cardiff
Alumni of the University of Wales
Ethnographers
Scottish artists