Louis Gallait (1810-87) born in Tournai, trained under Cornelis Cels and Philippe Auguste Hennequin in the neo-classical style. He moved to Antwerp, and was a pupil of Mathieu Ignace van Brée (see RCIN 405277). He was a member of the academies of Brussels, Berlin, Dresden, Munich, and, in 1853, Vienna. He showed his paintings in London from 1836 to 1872, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1862. His painting The Last Rites given to Counts Egmont and Hoorn was considered the jewel in the collection of the Museum at Tornai. He was judged to have successfully melded elements of the French romantic and classical traditions. This is one of four paintings of Gallait acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert between 1846 and 1850 (RCIN 400820, 403630, 405060 & 406466).

St Anthony the Abbot was born in 251 in Egypt. After the death of his parents, he gave away much of his family's wealth and became the disciple of a local hermit. He spent thirteen years living in the Western Desert as an ascetic. According to his biographer, Athanasius of Alexandria, in his solitude Anthony fought the devil who afflicted him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women and wild beasts, which he overcame by the power of prayer. He is thought to have died aged 105.

The 'Temptation of St Anthony' was a popular subject in art as a vehicle for fantastical horror with touches of the erotic. In the secular 19th-century art world, the latter element predominates. This is a typical example with St Anthony turning away from the temptation of the flesh towards his crucifix. He sits before an open Bible, raising his hands to touch a crucifix, while turning away from the naked figure of a woman standing on the right. A demon stands between them, shading his eyes from the sight of the crucifix. The Belgian royal collection has a well-known version of this painting, currently in the Castle of Laeken.